Code Reploid: Lelouch of the Rebellion X2
by HyperionGM
Summary: It is the year 2019 of the ATB calendar. The world, caught off-guard by the Great Maverick Uprising and left reeling by it a year ago, has not changed since the Black Rebellion. Into this crucible the Black Demon and his Knights step yet again. Though this time, their course is far from sure. And others make their own dark plans in the shadows.
1. Turn 1: The Day a Demon Awakened

**AN: So, I was writing this concurrently with chapter five of the interlude thing.**

**But that fell through at Ch 6.**

**'Course, a lot of the references to past events that haven't been posted will have intentionally vague timestamps since X2 is going to occur nearly a full to years after X1 began and I want to leave myself some breathing room for _C2 of the Interlude_ if I ever actually get working on it again.**

**Also don't expect as quick a output as X1, these are being scratch made rather than being modified from the plots of CG episodes like X1 was, and as such, writer's block will hit significantly harder should I stumble on certain things.**

**Anyways, all systems are go, standby for mission deployment.**

KEY (For here on out so I don't get bitched at about what X special text thing means.)

" "- Speaking normally (obvious)

_"Italics"-_ Thoughts, including thought based communication (Example: Code) (also obvious). Also used for dialogue in opening snippets.

"With **bold** or _italics _mixed in"-Emphasis on certain words.

_"Italics with _normal text_ and_ _**bold**__ mixed in__"_\- Emphasis on certain words in thoughts.

="Text"=-Low level voice modulation, typically Zero's mask.

**="With bold text"=-** Character with heavy voice modulation.

"ALLCAPS"-Yelling/screaming.

"**ALLCAPS WITH BOLD**"-Violently enraged or terrified screaming.

["Text"]-Speakers/Radio Communications.

[TEXT]-Computer readouts/networked communications.

"Text with underline"-Geass Command.

* * *

"_Y'know… I never really thought much of C2 as being more than a tagalong for Zero before getting to know her, but even after that, if you'd told me even two or three years ago that she'd become even more widely known as the 'Valkyrie of Razgriz' for her actions in the Second Black Rebellion… I'd probably call you crazy given how little she actually contributed to combat engagements at the time. Then again, she wasn't really given that many opportunities to deploy and all, what with us being an insurgency and her operating deep cover at Ashford. She was called a lot of things, but a_ hero? _Nobody was stupid enough to call her that to her face given her distaste for being seen as such. Even if she really was far more of one than most of us.__"__-Kallen_ Stadtfeld Kozuki during an interview marking the fifth anniversary of the first Black Rebellion in 1967 AD/0001 AR era following the public announcement of the interim government of Britannia's reformation into a true Constitutional Monarchy, the United Kingdom of Britannia, at the behest of outgoing Regent Nunnally vi Britannia.

* * *

**June 6, 2021 ATB.**

**Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Near silence was broken as Jeremiah Gottwald, the Knight of Two, barked orders out to Emperor Lelouch's guardsmen, Liath braced with her own blade pressed against Zero's, the masked man and helmeted woman both grunting as their swords remained locked as they dueled atop the float.

"Quickly! Recover the body of his Majesty and get it to safety before the crowd can descend upon it in the chaos!" Jeremiah ordered as he saw an opening, a dozen soldier's in the garb of Emperor Lelouch's personal guard rushing towards the float while Geassed soldiers aimed their weapons at the confused throngs lining the sides of the parade route, those members of the UFN, Maverick Hunters, and Black Knights who'd been readied for their execution gazing at the Emperor's float in a mix of shock and horror.

Atop the float, C2 loomed over a distraught Nunnally as she held her dying brother, the bloodstained White and Gold armored Reploid standing stoically as the troops managed to get around the dueling combatants and headed towards where she was standing.

_"Goodbye, Lelouch..."_ She thought as she turned and allowed the guardsmen to pass her and pry Lelouch away from Nunnally, tears rolling down her own cheeks behind her battle mask as she heard the crippled girl mewl and cry in dismay as her entire world was ripped out from under her, just after finally understanding _why_ Lelouch had done as he did. _"It _always_ had to end like this, didn't it? Just the way you wanted."_

* * *

**_From every ending, you know the beginning. But not the journey._**

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

An immense civilian airship hummed over the city of Pendragon, advertising screens displayed along the sides of its double 'hulled' gas envelope.

["Airship Hotel Four Seven Niner this is Pendragon control, your flight plan has been approved and you are clear to enter Pendragon airspace on an advertising run, do _not_ deviate from it except when otherwise instructed or in the event of an emergency or you _will_ be shot down."]

"Copy that Control, Lima Four Seven Niner acknowledges." A woman manning the airship's communication's console acknowledged before ending the transmission.

"We're in ma'am." She informed the blond haired, red-eyed young woman sitting in the officer's chair at the center of the conn.

Nemo smirked. "Idiots." She whispered softly as she glanced over at the waterfront, spotting the uniquely distinctive profile of one of the moored vessels.

A shame that they had a very limited list of errands to run.

* * *

In the airship's cavernous cargo bay, over three dozen KMFs stood at attention, backed by sixteen Scopedog series ride armors.

Most of the Knightmares were the replacement for the old and totally obsolete Burai, the Fifth Gen Ronin, which was derived from surplus Sutherlands that had been sold off when the Gloucester and Vincent series began to replace it in frontline Britannian service.

The remainder were Urabe's Gekka, a pink colored pre-production type Gekka with a developmental wave surger arm, and the four Guren units they'd brought, including the Mark II and Mark II Kai.

Urabe strode forwards to acknowledge the troops, Shirley standing next to him in a high-G pilot suit of the type currently issued to all Gekka and Guren pilots in the Black Knights. "You have all volunteered for this operation in the full expectation that every one of you may die, I have never been prouder to command a force of soldiers so dedicated to their mission. If we succeed, this will signal the rebirth of the Black Knights! And even if we fail, Britannia shall remember the lesson she conveniently forgot after the great Maverick Uprising of the last year, that not even its capital is safe from those who'd wish to destroy its corrupt system!" He declared.

There was a chorus of cheers from the troops, a mix of Japanese, Indians, Europans, Africans, Southeast Asians, Middle-Easterners, Koreans and even some of the veteran Britannians and Chinese who'd defected prior to the Battle of Tokyo nearly two years ago, plus numerous Reploids that had signed up in the aftermath of the Maverick Uprising and the resulting backlash towards Reploids.

Urabe unsheathed his Katana and pointed it to the ceiling. "All Knightmare and ride armor troops are to mount up! All infantry and reserve pilots prepare for drop! Today is the day we bring a demon back from hell!" He bellowed, the Black Knights issuing a battle cry in response as they pumped their fists into the air. "LONG LIVE ZERO!"

"**LONG LIVE ZERO!**"

* * *

**June 6, 2017 ATB.**

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

A bored looking guard sighed as he reclined in his chair, watching from the central security room as a new prisoner was brought in, having been apprehended by a squad of R2 series Reploids while casing the prison.

"You'd think the Black Knights would be smarter… Eh Rolo?" The young man sighed as he adjusted his cap over his raven hair.

The other young man looked over at his friend and shrugged. "Well, considering how desperate they are, it isn't surprising."

The first guard huffed under his breath. "You've got that right. Well, we have orders from OSI to fast-track them through security anyways."

He narrowed his eyes, noting how suspicious this all was that a high-ranking Black Knight would be conveniently captured this far inside Britannia's old capitol.

* * *

Kallen was marched handcuffed into Temple Tower's prisoner processing center, three R2 series Reploids, more robust and humanoid developments of the mass production copies of C2, striding behind her, busters aimed at her back.

["**Attention all personnel, high priority prisoner processing in progress. Code Reminder: Isolate. Contain. Secure.**"] The automated PA intoned harshly.

Two OV3RW4TCH model Reploids strode forwards to receive her. **="We'll take it from here unit."=** The one on Kallen's left stated.

The lead R2 shook its head and chittered in an electronic tone as its monoeye swept back and forth on its track.

The two guard units looked at eachother and then raised their weapons. **="Provide your operating number at-"=**

Kallen tensed up, wondering if they'd been made.

A chime echoed from the door, followed by a burst of static, after which the guard Reploids relaxed. =**"Status one confirmed by security command, you may proceed to interrogation level."=** The unit on the right said, as if they hadn't just been ready to open fire on them seconds ago.

Kallen was ushered through the door onto the waiting elevator, which sealed shut shortly thereafter.

* * *

**Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

["Airship Hotel Four Seven Niner! You have deviated from your flight plan! Explain yourself at once!"]

"Uh we have an emergency, really, really, really big emergency here!" The comms operator chimed back.

["State your emergency!"]

"Our emergency is that you're an idiot! Long live the Black Knights!" She cackled as she cut the comms off.

"Shed the exterior shroud, drop the gondola, and raise the radiant wave shields. Order the _Shimakaze_, _Shiranui_, and _Fubuki_ to disengage from their own courses, shed their disguises, and move to escort formation around us. And have the transports wait for the order to move in for the evacuation." Nemo ordered.

She resisted the urge to twitch or give off any nervous tics, they were making a massive gamble with their available airships and wouldn't be able to replace any of them for some time if something went wrong.

"Aye ma'am!" The comms operator acknowledged.

"Oh and tell the _locals_ it's go time." Nemo added as the projected feeds from the cameras mounted on the airship went dark and the immense viewports began to slide open.

"Aye!"

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Temple Tower Grounds, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

The guards patrolling the perimeter wall around Temple Tower looked up as they tried to comprehend what a superheavy lighter than air-ship was doing in the area.

Then the shroud around it was ejected, a sleek blue heavier than air-ship revealing itself from inside, its air glide system powering on while the craft's white and orange wings unfurled out from under itself like a gigantic predatory bird.

The alarms began to blare around the facility as Knightmares, Ride Armors, and Mechaniloids began to scramble.

It was then that the false gondola attached underneath the craft landed, its own single-use air glide system pulsing once as it touched down.

Hundreds of anti-material airburst grenades suddenly sprayed into the air from launchers hidden all over the pod, detonating in a brilliant display and wiping out much of the exterior security force as it deployed, shredded Knightmares, Mechaniloids, and Ride Armors collapsing to the ground in heaps of badly perforated scrap while armored cars veered off in random directions, now driverless and operating on inertia.

Then the hatches opened up and the Black Knights emerged, gunfire ripping out of the pod and tearing into the surviving defenders right out of the gate.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

**["INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT."]** The Prison's security VI blared as Rolo and his counterpart looked on in horror at the absolute slaughter of their exterior security forces at the hands of the Black Knights.

"Alan! We need to contact the military!" Rolo shouted at him.

"I'm trying but we're being jammed!"

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**OSI Field Office, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

One of the OSI agents sitting at the comms consoles glanced at the baron behind him, who simply nodded.

"Capture and kill teams, move in at your discretion, intervention teams keep the regulars not associated with us away for as long as possible."

["Yes, my lord!"]

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Six OV3RW4TCH class Reploids marched up to the elevator doors to escort Kallen and the Reploids guarding her to the interrogation center under heavy guard.

Then the alarms began to blare, and their weapons snapped up.

The elevator stopped, its doors failing to open on time.

The Reploids flicked their safeties off, expecting possible hostile forces. =**"Open up!"=** The lead one on the left barked.

The doors then slid open to reveal a smirking C2, clad in silver trimmed black armor, aiming two buster cannons at their heads.

"You didn't say _please_." She giggled before gunning them all down.

Kallen sighed and strode out as their smoldering husks hit the ground, two grunt Black Knights Reploids behind her as she flicked the safety on her Type 64 rifle off and adjusted her ballistic vest and helmet.

The disguises they'd worn laid on the floor, C2 having utilized her connection to cyberspace to store their normal equipment for the duration of the infiltration phase.

At a severe cost to her energy levels of course, which were climbing back up to optimal power.

C2 eyed Kallen lazily. "You three follow your part of the plan, I'll go stir up trouble in the Reploid barracks to keep the heat off you and Rokusho until reinforcements arrive."

Kallen nodded in acknowledgement as the two Reploids behind her switched their right arms to busters after securing the launcher and ammo for it they'd brought, buster tech having recently become somewhat widespread outside the Hunters following the Uprising and Britannia's mass proliferation of buster armed R series Reploids.

C2 watched them rush down the hallway, following the designated corridors to ensure they didn't take a wrong turn.

A year ago, she and Kallen would be trying their damndest to avoid getting into a fight.

The circumstances behind her return to the Black Knights, even if it was a more mercenary return at the time, had sort of bridged the gap created in the aftermath of the Black Rebellion.

Saving Kallen's father from being assassinated by his relatives in the Stadtfeld clan had been a key component of that. Now the former Earl Andrew Stadtfeld was a key supporter of the Black Knights, and a major instrument in their rebuilding by increasing budget efficiency and streamlining logistics due to his business experience, allowing Shirley to focus more heavily on what she deemed was being 'overtly useful'.

His daughter had been nothing short of shocked to discover he'd been supporting the Kozuki group from the very beginning.

It'd been a tender reconciling moment between the two, especially since she managed to get Kallen's mother out in the process as well.

C2 smiled softly at the memory as she retracted her older buster and brought up the far more powerful Light Labs Mark 18C she'd acquired during the uprising, shield already drawn off her back and directed forwards as she made her way deeper into the facility.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**East Imperial Palace Command Center, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Operator Reploids chattered wildly as Executrix Liath strode into the command center where Suzaku was waiting for her. The other rounds were attending to various concerns, Waldstein notably being in the current acting capital of New Pendragon near the west coast, leaving Suzaku and his personal forces to shore up the old palace's defenses alongside the 501st.

=**"You're certain it's the Black Knights?"=** She inquired, tilting her head to look at him.

"Aside from the radio message claiming that's who they are, there are multiple Gurens on the field and the ship hidden inside that blimp shell has their emblem clearly plated on the bow." Suzaku replied flatly.

Liath huffed in response.

They both knew this day would come the moment OSI leaked Zero's location.

Unfortunately, much of Pendragon's defense grid was still being rebuilt after being devastated during the months long Maverick Uprising the year prior, ironically, intel suggested _that_ had been the primary reason various neo-American patriot forces had called off their parts in an admittedly suicidal attack on the capital and bunkered down across the continent.

Which left those who'd actually shown up in a very _unfortunate _situation.

A bigger irony was that C2, whom Gino had encountered _inside the Palace_ during the affair, had finally earned a name for herself after going on a rampage at the tail end of the battle, slaughtering many of the combatants she'd encountered.

She spared those who'd ceased fighting and fled from her. Anyone who didn't became another victim of the 'Banshee of Pendragon', whose enraged screams heralded the death of those who faced her in battle.

"Multiple explosions in the Nelson district!" An operator shouted suddenly. "Confirming… They're targeting utilities and government facilities!"

"The Black Knights?"

"No! It appears to be 'patriot' rebel forces!"

C.C. frowned behind her mask. _"Of course, they wouldn't be so stupid as to not have a distraction to draw off our garrison troops…"_ She thought grimly, Nemo's skills had clearly advanced outside her expectations, not that she'd expected the Second Rebellion to even start the same way after the Maverick Uprising threw a massive wrench into _everyone's_ plans, let alone the extremely delicate ones she and Charles were working on. **="I want security detachments to sweep the areas around the garrison airfields at once! We can't risk launching fighters or gunships if they have MANPADS or anti air guns!"= **She barked at an operator.

"At once your eminence!"

Suzaku glanced over at her. "Can we deploy forces directly from the palace?" He queried.

**="Take it up with Franks if you'd like."= **Liath replied flippantly, having no desire to spar words with the woman, especially since she'd probably hold the Palace's garrison in reserve out of the possibility the Black Knights would go after Imperial secrets.

Suzaku grimaced. "I'd rather not."

**="Then there's your answer."=**

He frowned further. "Still… We have to do _something_, lest we concede defeat."

Liath nodded at him before turning to an operator. =**"Contact the Glinda Knights, they should be performing maneuvers on the proving grounds with High General Cornelia's forces. In the meantime, order Fort Grays to scramble fighters with a mix of air to air and air to ground loadouts, we need to stall them long enough for our forces to pin them in."=**

"Yes, your eminence!" The Reploid acknowledged as they opened a channel to the proving grounds, putting it under Paralevel Zero to authenticate its urgency.

Suzaku narrowed his eyes as he glanced at Liath out of the corner of his eye. "You think Rolo can stop them if they reach him?"

**="Perhaps, only if the Banshee stays out of it though, even with a Vincent he's no match for that Reploid if she intervenes. Maybe a year and a half ago he could take her, but not now."= **Liath conceded.

Suzaku clenched his fists, knowing she was right.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Guard Reploid Barracks, Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Alarms blared throughout Temple Tower.

Ordinarily this would scramble the guard detachments to action from all stations, including a mass in the barracks.

In this case however the barracks were _part_ of the reason the alarm was blaring.

C2 swept through the section, cutting down every single hostile who stood in her way.

She smashed one's face in with a shield, used another to block a volley of shotgun shells from one of the NCO types with the red optics and belt-fed shotguns, she'd promptly grabbed _that_ unit's weapon and used it to mow down a response squad rushing down the hallway before cleaving its head off using the Sword Soul.

She took a turn down another hallway and blinked as she saw a _platoon_ of guards rushing towards her.

Thinking quickly, she swapped to the Metal Soul, generated two blades, and swapped to the Guts Soul almost immediately.

**="SHIT!"=** One of the guards shouted as they brought up their rifle.

She flung the razor-sharp ceratanium buzzsaws down the hallway with incredible force, the insanely sharp metal blades sheering all thirty-six Reploids and their weapons in twain before passing through the wall as if it wasn't even there.

"Okay…" An incredulous C2 whispered. "Maybe that was a bit too _much_ overkill…"

The building shook violently again.

"Ah, that must be backup getting closer." She mused as she rushed down the hallway the Reploids had come from. Which meant she was nearing one of the main hangars, which was Shirley's objective.

She stepped through the doorway.

And into a massive hangar filled with nearly _three hundred_ OV3RW4TCH model security Reploids lining a variety of catwalks and spread out across the floor, most carrying assault rifles, but a few with belt-fed shotguns, automatic marksman rifles, 20mm anti-material chain-rifles, SMGs, a variety of grenade and rocket launchers, some recoilless rifles, a few buster cannons, and a plethora of machine guns.

Joining them were sixty riot control fitted G-02 Hunter series heavy mechaniloids with .50 caliber MGs in their right arms, fifty G-01 Beetle aerial heavy security mechaniloids with a mix of underslung 5.56mm LMGs, 25mm grenade launchers, and four shot missile pods, and twelve gen IV scopedog series ride armors with double barreled 25mm chainguns.

In addition to the _four_ F-6t Bigfoot optionally manned Mechaniloid walkers, each with open anti-tank missile pods and spooled up 25mm GAU-7 linear rotary cannons.

Clearly she wasn't nearly as unanticipated as she thought she was because she was staring down an entire armory.

"Oooooh _ssshhhiiiiiiit_." C2 hissed as she took in the sight before her and heard the clacking of dozens of safeties going off at once.

Her defenses, consisting of energy shielding, a physical ceratanium shield, and of course her armor, was quite robust.

But a barrage like the one she was potentially facing would likely shred through or severely damage just about anything short of the composite belt armor of a modern _battleship_.

And there was no possible way she could kill all of them before the others gunned her down.

**="EXCISE!"=** One of the Reploids shouted, C2 bracing herself for the end.

And then an explosion ripped through the wall, distracting her would-be executioners.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Shirley led a squad of Ronin through Temple Tower's Knightmare access hallways with her Guren Mark II Kai, the machine's wave buster blasting apart a hapless security Sutherland that got in her way while her team, consisting of five Ronins and four ride armors, covered her flanks against popup threats.

It'd been a long two years since Lelouch had vanished, and she wasn't the same innocent teenager who'd been drafted into the Black Knights after C2 threatened to kill Lelouch if he'd Geassed her.

She'd lost track of how many people she'd killed at around thirty. Not all of them in self-defense.

Especially after the Uprising occurred and everything descended into anarchy until the various governments and the Maverick Hunters could restore order.

"How much further until we reach the primary air loading bay?" Shirley asked as she kept a wary eye on her proximity sensors.

["The next left and then another three hundred meters straight!"] One of her subordinates replied.

"Right then, we'll hold the site against enemy reinforcements until we can break out as many of our people as possible, and anyone else held unjustly by Britannia for political dissidence."

["Roger!"]

The wave buster crackled as energy gathered between the four pronglike 'fingers' of the wave buster arm.

And then Shirley fired a charged pulse, which vaporized much of the security door standing between them and the hangar.

Two 25mm chaingun turrets began to deploy from the ceiling, and were blown away before they could finish unfurling

The squad passed through the threshold into the hangar.

Right on time to narrowly save C2 from utter annihilation by the security troops.

Shirley narrowed her eyes and swapped the buster to rapid fire, her squad also opening up, the most effective of them being the lone Ronin Cannon's two shoulder mounted 105mm semi-automatic short barreled howitzers, which thundered away at their opponents and sent up sprays of shrapnel and parts as Reploid and Mechaniloid alike were torn apart.

One of the bigfoots ate a shell in its right missile pod, the resulting explosion cooking off the fuel and warheads of the missiles, leading to a reaction that consumed much of the machine and chained onto the one next to it, destroying both and anything close enough to them.

KMF rifle shells and anti-personnel MG rounds continued to spray over the mechaniloids and Reploid security troops, cutting more of them down while slash harkens speared into the ride armors, crushing their mechanical pilots and sending them toppling to the ground.

A missile salvo blew apart the uppermost catwalks and gantries courtesy of C2's Commando Soul, the Reploid switching to the Slash Soul and leaping into a formation, claws glowing with deadly energy sheathing as they carved through entire squads.

Shirley promptly turned her attention to the ride armors and mechaniloids, cutting the remainder down in a fusillade of radiant wave energy.

"_Kallen should be at the cell block right about now… And Nemo should be making her way to the warden's office with Urabe…"_ Shirley thought as another wave of OV3RW4TCH Reploids charged down the side hallways, backed by multiple R1 squads.

She heard C2 scream in rage at the number of opponents here as she herself sighed and opened fire on the newcomers before they could take advantage of their numbers.

* * *

Kallen's heart raced as she fired a burst down a hallway, blowing an R1 unit's head apart in a spray of shrapnel and electronics with a few 7.62mm coil-propelled armor piercing rounds.

"Get that breaching charge on the door and have that launcher ready!" Kallen roared at the two Reploids with her.

One of them confirmed the charge was set and retreated back to the alcove they were taking cover in.

The charge detonated, blowing the door wide open.

One of the Reploids stepped out into the center of the hall and raised an RPG-7 laden with a demolition warhead as his compatriot and Kallen dove for cover, the Reploid quickly took a few steps back to ensure Kallen wouldn't be harmed by the backblast.

"CLEAR BACKBLAST! FIRE IN THE HOLE!" He shouted as he pulled the trigger, the backblast funneling down the hallway and perforating a hapless melee optimized R1 unit that had tried to rush them in the lull.

* * *

Ohgi jumped in his cell when one of the doors from the outer sectors blew open, having been on edge ever since the alarms started blaring.

Briefly he thought an accident had occurred.

Then the rocket propelled grenade sailed into the 'roundhouse' and obliterated the level seven guard post.

The entire roundhouse was now even _more_ alarmed as energy and gunfire echoed from the hallway, everyone chattering away to try, wondering aloud about what the hell was going on.

And that's when he saw a _very_ familiar redhead rush into the level seven rotunda and open fire back down the hallway with an assault rifle.

"Kallen?!" Ohgi yelled as the Guard Reploids finally regained their bearings.

And then were cut down in a hail of gunfire from above.

A pair of Reploids, a silver stag beetle-themed one he recognized as C2's old XO on Squad 7, Rokusho, and a yellow and white rhinoceros beetle themed Reploid he didn't.

"Hell yeah! We rock!" The KBT type Reploid chuckled as Rokusho slid the door to Ohgi's cell open after smashing the lock.

"Deputy Commander, are you capable of fighting?" The silver Reploid inquired as gunfire and several more explosions echoed through the high security sector, guard Reploids and mechaniloids falling to their demise from stories above, another sizable blast was followed by the center guard tower suddenly collapsing as it pancaked in on itself level by level.

Ohgi nodded as he grabbed his journal, a log he'd written during his stay in temple tower. "Yeah, most of us can." He managed as he watched the dust from the guard tower's destruction begin to settle with wide eyes.

Rokusho nodded as more Reploid and Human Black Knights rappelled down and began to free the other leading Black Knights, as well as most of the other prisoners who weren't there for legitimate concerns such as terrorism or other truly illegal activities. "Very well then, because we're expecting the enemy to throw everything they can muster, including the Kitchen Sink, at us shortly."

Ohgi gulped as he was handed a bullpup Type 64 rifle, an M1911 coil pistol, spare ammo mags and batteries, and a fresh uniform and body armor. "Right then." He acknowledged, beginning to inspect the weapons as Todoh strode over.

"Who's in charge?" The leader of the Holy Swords asked, hoping for clarification on how to follow.

"That would be acting Supreme Commander Nemo." Rokuso acknowledged as the yellow KBT type Reploid struggled to keep Tamaki from ripping a gun out of his hands.

The KWG type Reploid sighed and turned to face them. "Metabee, let him have the weapon."

Both regarded him like a pair of confused chimps.

"I thought Tamaki wasn't supposed to handle weapons." Metabee inquired.

"That was just C2 messing with you." Rokusho sighed in exasperation, putting his palm against his faceplate.

Metabee began chittering angrily as he released his hold on the gun and turned to face his partner. "**KEKEKEKEKEKE**! AIN'T NOBODY MESS WITH METAL BEETLE LIKE THAT! WHY I'LL SHOW HER-"

Tamaki meanwhile had paled visibly and backed away as he saw who had just appeared behind Metabee.

"Show who what Metabee?" C2 asked sweetly, her tone dripping with false honey. "That you're dumber than Tamaki?"

Ohgi had never heard a Reploid shriek so girlishly before.

"N-n-nothing m-m-ma'am! Forget I said anything! Actually, just forget I exist!" He stuttered in a panic.

C2 sighed in exasperation, her eyes half-lidded in annoyance as she titled her head slightly. "You know I'm not going to do anything to you in battle you idiot, seriously I swear you're _actually_ dumber than Tamaki sometimes." She grumbled as she smacked him on the head.

"Than- Wait! Hey!" Tamaki shouted as he assessed what had been said and realized it was still an insult.

"C2…? I thought you…" Ohgi began.

"Abandoned the Black Knights, yeah I did…" She sighed. "It's a _really_ long story that involves me saving Kallen's parents from an assassination attempt, fighting Mavericks across the globe, ending up in Pendragon with a bunch of Neo-Patriots, fighting against a variety of Reploids who were also gunning for me dealing with the Glinda Knights when they went after the aforementioned bunch of Neo-Patriots, getting laid, etcetera, etcetera."

Ohgi blinked and reeled back a bit. "Wait what was last part?"

"I said I got _laid_. What? Did you expect me to pull some stupid bait and switch?" The Reploid said with a catlike smirk on her face.

"But that's…"

"Aftermarket mods." She explained with a wave of her hand.

"I _thought_ your chest was bigger than I remembered…" Tamaki mumbled.

"Don't make me cause an accident later Tamaki. You're more useful to us with your feet_ not_ reduced to powder." C2 snarled as she eyed him dangerously.

The Japanese man rapidly held up his hands in a placating gesture of surrender.

Todoh rolled his eyes. "That's fine and all but what's our force deployment like?" He inquired as Sugiyama, Takahasi, Suzue, and Minami trooped over.

"Shirley's holding the hangar, Inoue's running the fleet operations overhead from the _Ikaruga_, Kusukabe is holding position with Diethard for our exit point, and Urabe and Nemo are going to retrieve Zero." She explained.

Everyone did a significant double-take, cutting off the questions about fleet operations, Shirley, and Inoue. "Zero? He's alive? How?" Ohgi whispered, speaking what was on the minds of everyone who'd been imprisoned.

"If they had actually killed him his corpse would've been paraded through the streets of Pendragon, hanging from the torso of the Lancelot for all to see the fate of those who'd oppose Britannia." C2 pointed out as the remainder of the Swords arrived as well.

It was sound logic, and something Britannia _would_ do to prove a point.

"So the Warden's keeping him close 'eh!" Tamaki noted spitefully. "Well considering how he-"

C2 sighed again as she cut him off. "Yeah, I know you all have problems with Zero, especially after Tokyo, I'm the last you'd expect to make excuses for his shit but I'm sure you can imagine the amount of stress he'd been under beforehand, especially after the repeated SAZ curveballs."

Ohgi and Todoh nodded grimly. "Even I'd been near breaking point when we arrived at Tokyo." Todoh admitted.

"Someone Zero was close to was abducted during the battle and he snapped, losing all sight of his intended goal." Minami mumbled, remembering how Zero prioritized one of the hostages over Ohgi at the time.

"So Zero snapped, what're we supposed to do? Just kowtow before him and beg for him to be our leader again?" Tamaki grumbled as the facility shook again, this time from Britannian forces bombarding it. "Like hell we are! He's the one who ditched _us_!"

"Oh I'll make sure he answers for what happened in Tokyo." C2 growled. "Even if I have to beat him black and blue over it."

"Uh…" Ohgi murmured nervously as the building shook again.

The dull crack of a fighter jet passing overhead at supersonic speeds was heard shortly thereafter.

C2 glared at him idly. "What? I didn't say I _forgave_ him, just that I understood why he snapped and lost focus. The two aren't exclusively connected."

"It's not just that, but I think we've spent way too much time idly talking in the middle of one of the most secure prisons on the _planet_, while it's presumably under attack from the very nation that's operating it." He pointed out.

"MOVE YOUR STUPID ASSES! THE BRITANNIANS FINALLY SENT REINFORCEMENTS!" Kallen shouted from across the way as people streamed past her out the door.

C2's face flushed red as she remembered that tidbit, having gotten distracted. "Oh, shit, right let's get moving people!" She ordered as they too joined the rush of those escaping.

C2 paused briefly in the hall, having a bad feeling about the ease with which they'd gotten into Old Pendragon, something she hadn't considered until now, the Reploid splitting off and heading to a lift that would take her higher into the facility.

And towards where Nemo and Urabe's teams were advancing on security control.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**Hunter Base, Abel City, Australia.**

X looked wistfully at a picture of himself and C2 huddled together in sleep mode that Zero had taken when he recovered them from Chill Penguin's hijacked Antarctic base after the Maverick Hunter turned Maverick had been destroyed.

Incidentally that was the day they'd inadvertently soul-bonded due to him managing to help mitigate C2's latest mental breakdown via... 'Unconventional Means'.

Of course, the moment he managed to resolve that issue she pulled him into a 'horizontal tango'.

To be fair, C2 had been waiting for months for it after unspokenly promising as much back in Tokyo, having paid for the aftermarket mods to make such an act possible, and they'd been trapped for nearly a week by a rather nasty storm that had brewed up thanks to the damage sustained by the weather control device in the facility, which had normally been intended to open breaks in fierce Antarctic storms to allow aircraft to access the remote research bases for resupply or evacuation.

He sighed and slapped his helmet. "X, stop acting like a lovesick teenager, C2'd hit you for that." He breathed before turning back to his reports.

X was immediately interrupted by a frantic pounding at his room's door.

He shot up and rushed over to it, the door sliding open to reveal a grunt hunter from the 17th standing there. "What is it?"

"Captain X! Sir! There's a situation in Pendragon! Commander Sigma needs you in Ops ASAP!" The Reploid informed him.

X resisted the urge to groan.

He knew damn well that C2 was likely involved.

"_Well… Looks like we might be back to that old grind."_ He mused internally.

Except this time both he and C2 were capable of feats that made their little dance in Tokyo look like a slapfight in comparison.

"_She's also more experienced in individual combat than me thanks to her those underground brawls she entered while in hiding… Yeah she's going to kick my _ass_, even with all the battle experience and the weapons chips I gained fighting my former comrades…"_ He realized after a moment's pause.

Still, at least she had a motivating cause again, considering how bad her mental state had gotten before her trip to Europa, partially due to guilt and listlessness.

That was enough to make him smile as he stood up and headed out the door.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

The Gekka Pre-Production Test Type tore through the main security levels, Urabe's Custom Gekka following in tow with a pair of Ronin units, having left three of them to guard the primary lift.

"Urabe, I want your team to clear out the local area and begin planting the charges." Nemo ordered.

["And what'll you be doing?"]

"Going after Zero." She stated calmly.

* * *

C2 raced down a hallway before the building rumbled violently again and fire spat down a side passage, nearly tripping over a body in the process.

"The hell…? We don't have forces on this floor..." She murmured as she took cover, before noting with some disquiet that the bod_ies_ in the corridor were all unarmed prison administration staff, people the Black Knights _weren't_ targeting.

She managed to collect herself as she suffered a brief flashback to the unspeakable horrors she'd witnessed during the Maverick Uprising, expecting hostiles nearby

Sure enough, a sizable force of Reploids and humans bearing spec-ops gear were advancing down the main hallway, weapons raised, backed by Ride Armors and Gloucesters.

"_Britannian special forces…?!"_ She thought as she recognized the patterns.

["All SAD detachments are to capture Nemo and terminate _all _witnesses. Leave no survivors outside of the target and other OSI forces. Work from the upper levels and then head down."] One of the Gloucesters ordered over its speakers.

"Yes, my lord!" The troops replied in unison.

C2 hissed under her breath as she passed and attempted to chime her comms, only to find them jammed.

"_Of course it's OSI."_ She thought, the Office of Strategic/Secret Intelligence was arrogant as hell, but they weren't stupid.

Or at least _most_ of their staff and operatives weren't, as they weren't even using radio communications to hide their intent.

Of course they were just going to kill everyone anyways so they might not have minded the security risk that much.

Cycling her buster, she checked her internal map of the prison and took a side passage, hoping to get to the others before the OSI did.

* * *

Alan Spacer sweated nervously as he watched the security forces dwindle precipitously. Rolo had gone off to speak to the warden and had _not_ returned or contacted him, leading him to believe his friend had been killed.

Especially with the goddamn _Banshee of Pendragon_ running about and slaughtering most of the OV3RW4TCH series units and whatever else she came across with punitive ease.

Another blast shook the building. "Sector four! Report!" He demanded over the comms. "Sector four!"

He checked the remaining and what he saw chilled him to the bone.

In every view, dozens of prison staff and human guards in that sector lay dead in drying pools of their own blood, his hand away from his headset in horror

"_It doesn't make any sense, Sector Four was an administrative zone… The Black Knights wouldn't have any reason to go there. Nor kill any of them."_

He then noticed the Britannian IFFs moving through the facility and tried to contact them. "Attention Britannian forces! This is Security Officer Alan Spacer of the Temple Tower Detention Center! Are you here to provide support?"

The IFFs flickered off in unison.

The cameras started going dark immediately thereafter.

He briefly caught a glimpse of a squad exiting an elevator and opening fire on a pair of guards before the cameras were shot out.

The young man fell back into his seat in shock. "Why… Why are they attacking us?" He gasped.

"It's simple. Because you're expendable." A voice intoned behind him.

Spacer whirled around, drawing his sidearm and aiming at Nemo as she stood there. "How did you get in here!?" He demanded, unable to shake a sense of familiarity.

"Through the door, how else?" The immortal retorted.

"Don't play games with me! I'll shoot!" He threatened as he flicked the safety off.

She looked down at his gun. "Did you pre-chamber a round?" She inquired.

"Wha…?"

"I asked if you'd pre-chambered a round. You can't shoot me with that 1911 if there's not a round chamber." She pointed out.

As he scrambled to see if the coilpistol had a round chambered, Nemo raised her own sidearm and strode over to him, aiming it at his forehead. "Okay, you're an idiot for not already knowing whether or not you have a round chambered. Now put down the weapon. _Slowly_." She ordered.

"You're fucking with me." He realized after a moment as he set his pistol down.

"What gave you that impression? Kick it away."

He did as instructed, the gun sliding off to the side where it clattered to a stop against a console. "What're you going to do to me? Kill me? Take me prisoner?"

"I'm here to bring you back _Lelouch_."

He scoffed. "I don't know who you have me confused with but my name is Alan Spacer, my father's a Duke, a high-ranking member of the Internal Security Bureau I might add."

Nemo narrowed her eyes at him. "So, you got to this position via nepotism? How does that make you feel about your merits?"

He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't find the words to reply, a sense of shame flooding over him.

"That's what I thought, you feel cheated because you didn't accomplish this on your own. Yet you seemed almost prideful about your 'father's' position beforehand, why's that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" He snapped at her.

She stepped around him, keeping the gun trained on the young man. "It's simple, because everything you believe you know about yourself is a lie."

"Bullshit."

A smirk graced her features. "Is it now? Tell me, why have I not heard about this man then? Surely a Duke in the ISB would have substantial documented evidence of his existence. And as acting leader of the Black Knights, why would I not be aware of such a high value enemy target?"

He froze, unable to argue with her cold logic.

"Show me a picture of him." Nemo demanded.

"What?"

"Did I stutter? Show. Me. A. Picture. Doesn't have to be physical, just from your phone if necessary."

"What's the point of this?! You're not making any sense!" He shouted at her, now both confused and afraid for his life.

She clicked her tongue. _"This false identity must be more compliant than who Lelouch is, and it has to be relatively recent otherwise I'd be breaking through more easily."_

She was about to try her next plan, when she felt a sharp pain tear into her back and collapsed forwards as suppressed gunshot coughed behind her.

'Spacer' ran over and knelt down next to her, Nemo panting as her code attempted to repair the damage.

"How quaint, the bait worked exactly as intended." A man sneered softly as six OSI operatives in combat gear strode up.

"Bait!? What do you mean bait?!" Spacer demanded as he fumbled about for a medical kit.

Nemo rolled her head over to look at them.

Not a single one was wearing goggles or any form of eyewear that would interfere with Geass, either they remained unaware of what she was capable of unleashing again, or they were arrogant. Likely the former all things considered, V.V.'s arrogance was almost as immense as his obsession with his brother.

"My superiors are the ones monitoring you, 'Alan Spacer', however, I could hardly give a damn about what little trite things you do, I simply just kill who I'm told to kill."

"But we're all Britannians!? Why are you killing us?!"

The older man scoffed. "You're an imbecile, everyone in this prison is expendable as far as we're concerned. Especially those lobotomized tin cans you call sentries."

"Lobotomized…?!"

The man sneered and decided to entertain the question. "Why do you think the 'overwatch' series is only used by Britannia? They're converted wholesale from petty Mavericks and dissident Reploids who don't toe that proverbial unspoken line and aren't worth the effort to rehabilitate. The Soviets have a model with similar origins that's commonly mistaken for being the same type, but there's enough subtle differences to tell the two apart. But really, that's irrelevant, just like everyone else on this prison's staff that we've _slaughtered_."

"Why even bring it up then!?" Spacer yelped in surprise.

The man shrugged indifferently. "Honestly, I just like letting someone learn one last thing before they _die_, if possible. Really lets the kill feel a bit more personal."

He gasped in horror. "Why!? What reason do you have to do any of us!?"

"Our objective is only to bring this girl in. You, and everyone else, have no such luck however. Scalpel four, kill him."

"No!" Nemo shouted and shot up, shoving 'Spacer' to the ground as one of the operators fired, a round shredding through her heart as she fell on top of him, blond hair flowing about as they collapsed.

Only the protective vests they were both wearing prevented the round from penetrating his body as well, and even then he had the wind knocked out of him.

The team leader clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Damn, call command to get a bodybag for her, we'll have to report our failure as well, Scalpel three, delete the recordings and then dispose of the boy. He's just a random commoner who thinks he has some power because he works for Internal Security."

"Sir."

'Spacer' simply laid there, Nemo resting on him as her corpse bled out. _"I'm going to die, because someone said I have to, for no reason... And the only reason I'm not dead_ already_ is that they're toying with me for their own sick amusement! Was… What she telling me true…? Is everything I know a lie?! To hell with it! Power, I need _power_, the power to escape this living hell!"_

"_So, you're ready now."_ Nemo's voice intoned, as if he was hearing it in his mind.

"_What?!"_

Her eyes opened and then she slid up his body, her lips gently pressing against his.

An unusual, yet oddly familiar sensation crawled through his nervous system.

* * *

He saw Jupiter pass by in all its resplendent glory, the sun shining from behind it.

"_What… What is this…?!"_

"_You desire power?"_

"_That voice again… The girl who was shot?!"_

Visions, familiar yet vague played through his mind, the etching of the collective's mark, the throngs of individuals bearing it on their foreheads.

He remembered them, yet also didn't.

"_The power you seek, has always been inside of you, merely locked away in a prison of amnesia. Remember, remember who you _really _are. The power of the King. Now… Let the seal… Be _broken_!"_

'Spacer' was soon taken to an unfamiliar yet familiar place, a white field inside his own mind.

He saw himself, images of a past lived but never knew he had flickering past him.

A caring but crippled sister, close friends and compatriots, arguments and laughter, tears and blood and all that came with them.

He was surprised at the presence of a green haired Reploid with golden eyes, as well as Kallen Stadtfeld, both currently at the top of the Empire's wanted list and _attacking_ the very facility he was inside, in addition to the added surprise of Suzaku Kururugi, Knight of Seven, all acting relatively friendly with him.

He saw Rolo, his presumed best friend, in none of them.

More images passed by, a dawning realization coming upon him.

"_These are my _memories_, but how…?"_

"_Memories of a life once lived, but lost thanks to hubris and betrayal."_

He saw C2 shouting at him, the Reploid looking severely upset with something he'd done. The scene shifted to a cavern, with Suzaku aiming a gun at him, disappointment cast on his face while Kallen stood barely visible, her eyes wide in shock.

And then to a mask which was utterly unmistakable, staring back at him.

"_I see now. No wonder I had this persistent feeling that something was wrong prickling like a bad itch incessantly at the back of my head every single waking moment of my days, yes… Hah, my mind was inherently rejecting the false memories implanted in me that I was living…"_

The images of his true Father, the Emperor Charles zi Britannia, and his true Mother, Marianne vi Britannia, flashed past him, alongside those of his dozens of siblings, his friends from Ashford and his cohorts in the Black Knights, all reflected on the violet dome that protruded from the mask of Zero.

"_But I remember now… Yes… I… I am _Zero_!"_

"_Lelouch… We're still friends… Aren't we?" _A memory of Suzaku asked him with tired eyes as he stood over Lelouch, holding a gun to his face whilst Liath's stormtroopers rushed towards the platform, the claps of their boots almost drowning the young man's voice out as black .

"_Yes… That's your answer isn't it… Suzaku!"_

"_Do you know what you must do now?"_ Nemo inquired.

His mental avatar smirked. _"Yes."_

"_Then wake up Lelouch, your Black Knights need their _leader_. They need their Black King."_

His smirk turned into a malicious grin.

* * *

Lelouch rolled Nemo off him as he slowly got to his feet.

Sure enough, the OSI team simply regarded him with amusement, and then shock as Nemo got up as well.

"Before you dispose of me, I would like to ask you all to answer a question."

"That girl's still alive!" One of them gasped in shock.

"Impossible! She took a hollowpoint round straight through the heart!" Another sputtered.

Nemo sidestepped away while Lelouch strode forwards, letting his bangs cover his eyes, already getting back into his old theatrics.

"If being powerless means my life is worth nothing, then does having power make yours worth any more? Does it make me wrong and you right?" He demanded as he walked towards them. "Do you find vengeance evil? What's your value of friendship, of justice?"

The squad leader backed away nervously and aimed his carbine at the young man approaching him but found himself too frozen by the sudden confidence in Lelouch's stride to pull the trigger.

"Answer me." Lelouch demanded again, flatly this time.

The squad leader's face hardened. "There's no value to evil or good! Only the righteousness of might! That's how the world works, that's how it's _always _worked!" He snapped.

"I see, and you're partially correct… But he who holds all the might, be it through raw strength or sheer compassion and charisma, can mould the state of the world around him as he sees fit."

"What the hell is he talking about!?" One of the operatives asked.

"Screw it, kill him." The squad leader scoffed. "He's just an idealistic hack."

Lelouch grinned like a predator who'd cornered his prey, his Geass flaring to life, much to the horror of the men before him, who were unable to comprehend what arcane power they now bore witness to. "Then you have chosen your fate, to be consumed by those who have _greater _power." He chuckled before gesturing at them with his left arm. "Now, behold! The Power of a _true _king! I, Lelouch vi Britannia!" He relished the look of shock and terror on their faces as he said his true birth name. "Command you! _all_ of you! **_Die_**!" He ordered as he swept his arm out, mirroring his flourish from when he ordered a squad of Clovis's guardsmen to kill themselves almost two years before.

The OSI team relaxed and smiled. "Happily, your highness!" They said gleefully as they drew their sidearms and flicked the safeties off, their weapons having been pre-chambered in anticipation of use.

"FIRE!" The squad leader shouted with psychotic joy.

And then they pulled the triggers, the weapons discharging with the metallic pangs associated with coilguns, the lifeless bodies of the OSI kill team falling to the ground shortly thereafter.

Lelouch's grin softened into a self-assured smirk. "This world has to change, so_ I_ will change it."

"_After all… I am Zero."_

A wall standing between the control room and a Knightmare use corridor burst open, revealing Urabe's Gekka and the Guren Mark II through the dust, Kallen having acquired it to reinforce Urabe after Nemo failed to check in on time.

Both Knightmares knelt before him. ["We've been awaiting your return Master Zero. Please, give us your orders"] Urabe stated over his frame's loudspeakers.

He noted that Urabe didn't seem to be phased at all by his appearance and filed it away for when he had the time to act on that knowledge.

"First, I need a status report." Lelouch barked.

["We've freed the prisoners held in the 'roundhouse', while a team under Q3 has currently locked down the hangar against enemy reinforcement."]

His eyes narrowed. "Q3? I didn't give that designation out."

["My apologies, acting Supreme Commander Nemo assigned that to Captain Fenette after Andrew Stadtfeld took over the quartermaster role."]

Lelouch managed to hide his surprise and horror at the reveal of Shirley actively engaging in combat, though he'd somewhat expected Kallen's father to end up working with them at some point, so _that_ wasn't much of a shock. "I see, continue."

Kallen spoke up next. ["Our air flotilla is keeping Britannian air power at bay, beyond a few strike planes that broke protocol and took off from local airfields to bomb the building at high speed before being driven off, but we've detected a transmission to Fort Grays to scramble most of their available combat assets."]

He narrowed his eyes. _"Air flotilla? No wonder they were able to risk raiding Pendragon."_ He nodded. "Is there anything else?"

["C2 reported she was moving to reinforce us but got waylaid by the warden."] Urabe informed him.

_That_ caused Lelouch to display some visible shock. Last he checked, C2 had totally bailed on him, rather harshly he might add. _"What happened over the course of the last year?!"_

"Very well then. Are there any Knightmares I can utilize?" He inquired.

["There's a number of OSI Gloucesters nearby with their IFFs loaded, all still running."] Urabe reported.

He chuckled, apparently his enemies had planned for a speedy withdrawal once they'd acquired Nemo.

"I guess I should thank them for being so considerate." He joked as he strode over to the closest unit, Nemo following.

He noticed the pink Gekka nearby and watched her turn and head towards it. He smirked and rode the Gloucester's boarding line up _"The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess."_

"Catch!" Nemo shouted as she tossed something to him after her Knightmare rolled over on remote pilot.

"What's this?" He inquired as he caught the small box.

"It's a special contact lens for your… Condition." She replied, Lelouch nodding in thanks as he closed the Gloucester's cockpit up and placed the contact lens over his perpetually active Geass eye before taking a quick look at the controls to re-familiarize himself with the Britannian standard layout.

Flicking through the systems, his smirk grew again. "I'll have to thank the Britannians sometime for not changing their cockpit layouts beyond minor subsystems." He mused jokingly, even the Lancelot's cockpit was largely standard from what he'd seen on Shikane Island.

Lelouch flicked to the Black Knights channel Urabe had provided via telemetry. "Attention all Black Knights forces, this is Zero! The one who shall crush this twisted world and remake it _anew_! I am taking command here!"

* * *

C2, standing over the smoldering metal shell that had once been Alarm Doberman with her Heat Soul active, smirked as she heard the transmission. _"Oh Lelouch, not even twenty seconds and you're already hamming it up. God that always amused and annoyed the shit out of me."_

She was still going to punch him in the face though, he deserved at least that much for his shit.

* * *

The chorus of cheers over his comms was almost deafening and it made his chest swell with pride, his forces hadn't abandoned him.

He looked over the evacuation plan Nemo was relaying to him from her Gekka, it was quite solid, but he already saw a few ways it could be altered for contingencies. "I will be sending you all revised orders for our escape operation, I need you to follow them to the letter for us to succeed, long live the Black Knights!"

[**"LONG LIVE THE BLACK KNIGHTS! LONG LIVE ZERO!"**]

* * *

**AN: Heh, using R2 as a basic blueprint for X2 but modifying it extensively is pretty fun.**

**In essence, X1 and R1 was like comparing a Burai to a Glasgow, modified enough to be different, but quite recognizable to the original.**

**X2 will be more like a Vincent to the Lancelot, you can see some obvious similarities, but if you didn't already know what was derived from what you're probably going to not recognize it.**

**Also, as for the 'Old' Pendragon thing, I'd imagine Britannia has two capital cities, old Pendragon, once a major revolutionary city like Philadelphia a-la Cold Calculus, and New Pendragon, which is the city towards the West Coast that's marked on the TV show's map.**

**As for C2's future title, well, Razgriz isn't exactly an exclusive title despite what AC05 would have you think about the ex-Wardog pilots.**

**Cipher, depending on the playthrough of AC0, notably earned that title long before any of them sans Bartlett, Pops, and maybe Swordsman ever stepped foot into a cockpit.**

**Anywho, since the OSI in CG shares its name with a very _different_ OSI from Venture Bros, I'm surprised at the lack of Agent Brock Sampsons running around in CG fics, absolutely slaughtering hapless Black Knights before someone competent steps in.**

**The Epilogue Prolouge thing, a la Halo:Reach was sort of a spur of the moment thing, it works well without revealing a bit too much of Zero Requiem that I've got planned.**

**I mean, Lelouch planned to die since _day_ _one_, not really a big surprise he gets offed, though I did have to cut some lines that were _major_spoilers that were originally put in after thinking it over.**


	2. Turn 2: Towerfall

**AN: Point of warning here, there's going to be some messed up stuff mentioned as a result of the Maverick Uprising, due to the typical viral Maverick's overall goal being the total genocide of humans and all, naturally more than a few characters are going to be quite scarred by their experiences, even if I'm going for a more overall hopeful bent than people wallowing in their own self pity for forever.**

**Also, since I figured out the hard way I can't manage my intended sideplots the characters intended for them (such as the irregulars, whom I criminally underused despite hyping them up a bit as C2's main opponents) will instead be used to advance plot points for use in the primary story later as is, waiting around in the wings to be used when the time is right and all that jazz, the only subplot I actually resolved in X1 was the whole Liath/C.C. reveal, and that was because it was critical to the main plot.**

**Additionally I'll be looking over critical portions of the story with a finer toothed comb, some things (such as the defections during the SAZ massacre) sounded better in my head to be honest.**

**More characters will get their own time in the sun as well, Kallen was horribly neglected last time, as was Shirley and even Suzaku to a degree.**

**Also looking back, I was legit surprised I didn't get more comments on the Liath reveal, Liath is Old Irish for Gray and one of C.C.'s aliases is 'Gray Witch' if the CG wiki is accurate, one of the entirely intentional things I did with symbolism in X1. Though I suppose my tendency to not reply to reviews in ANs may have had something to do with that (owing to my utter inability to take the leap of faith that is known as willingly engaging with people), as readers tend to leave more if the author interacts with the audience from what I've seen, so I'll start working on it right about..**

**Now.**

**Review:**

**Judeota-You don't know how much that review means to me, a bit of my creative process basically goes _'Did I screw this up? Are people going to hate it?' _during the editing phase, particularly during major events. And I admit I dropped the ball with a lot of X1 as I mentioned above, learning one's limits in juggling plots is incredibly important and I think I've learned that I can handle maybe one or two that aren't critical to the main story, and only if it has a good reason to be intermittently shown. I'll try to keep to the weekly schedule but I'm currently stalled on Round 9 due to procrastination more than anything, and some earlier chapters need more thorough vetting due to something I've been iffy about that I wrote (and for good reason), so I shall dutifully give myself a swift kick in the ass and get back to working on it so I can get the others edited sooner.**

* * *

"_The Fall of Temple Tower would mark a turning point in global history, for the first time an organized military force had struck Britannia where it hurt most, some individuals such as Orpheus Zevon of Peace Mark had made some noted gains in the homeland proper beforehand yes, but the occasional raid on a military facility or destruction of vital infrastructure or prototypes was a pale shadow compared to Zero's accomplishment, which could _not_ be ignored or downplayed no matter how hard Britannia wished to. And Zero had only just gotten _started_ with humiliating the Britannians."_-Excerpt from _End of an Empire: A chronology of the Black Rebellions and their aftermath, _first published 1973 AD.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Fort Grays Joint Airbase, Britannian Homeland.**

Alarms blared as fighters, laden with missiles and bombs, taxied to the runway at Fort Grays from numerous shelters positioned on the tarmac.

Among them were eight F-110 Wraith fighters, the single engine aircrafts' forward canards and rear elevators twitching as they grouped up on the runway.

Each one had an orange and blue squadron shield marked 508th TFS, with a crow-like wizard summoning lightning as the emblem, on their twin canted stabilizer fins.

**MAGE**

**Royal Britannian Air Force**

**32nd Tactical Fighter Wing 508th Tactical Fighter Squadron**

["This is Fort Grays Control, Mage Squadron you are clear for take off."] The tower informed them.

["Copy that control, Mage Squadron beginning takeoff."] The flight lead, callsign 'Clown' reported as his jet accelerated into the takeoff roll, Mage 2, callsign 'Trigger' following shortly thereafter.

Once the eight fighters had ascended to cruising altitude, they received their orders.

["Mage Squadron this is AWACS Sky Keeper, I'll be your command and control for this mission."] Sky Keeper's chief officer reported as the E-121 Constellation took formation off their right, its ventral 'canoe' and dorsal 'dish' radars already powered up and running.

["This will be a joint operation with the Navy's 206th and 506th Fighter Attack Squadrons, Icebirds and Golem, and the 108th and 616th Strike Fighter Squadrons, Wardog and Gargoyle, they will be under the command of AWACS Callsign 'Thunderhead'. The 32nd TFW's 507th and 509th TFS, Sorcerer and Wizard, will follow up to provide air superiority cover as soon as they're ready for takeoff. Additional units may join as requested."] Sky Keeper explained. ["Including further aircraft from the already assigned squadrons once they're combat ready, in addition to the Pendragon air defense units."] He added, as the typical RBAF TFS had 18-24 aircraft on hand at any given time, special units and Navy and Marine squadrons usually having 8-12.

Usually only two-thirds of any given squadron's aircraft were operational at any given time.

["What the hell requires at _least eight_ fully kitted out squadrons to deal with?"] Someone mumbled as they joined the mass formation.

["The Black Knights have launched a sizable raid on Temple Tower in Pendragon utilizing unknown airship models. Reports indicate the Red Dragon and the Banshee of Pendragon are also present on the ground."]

["Holy _shit_."]

["Personally, I'll stick to the air, I ain't touching that shit with a sixty-foot pole."] Another pilot mumbled over the radio.

["Cut the chatter Wardog 3."] Thunderhead snapped, restoring some semblance of radio professionalism.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

"B4 move your squad to sector twelve, and stop just short of the intersection, enemy forces will be crossing in thirty point two-four seconds, open fire then." Lelouch ordered as. "P23, your team is to move to sub-level nine and set charges. Q3, continue holding the line while the transports start picking up our forces, enemy forces inbound from hallway three, eight OSI Gloucesters. Destroy them."

["Zero, this is _Ikaruga_, we have multiple incoming air contacts on radar… Oh shit that looks like _six_ squadrons. Wait, more fighters incoming from behind this group and from the local airbases, I count a total of ten squadrons!"]

Lelouch narrowed his eyes as he watched the Gloucesters he directed B4's group at register as lost. "Do we have any fighters?"

["Not enough to repel this kind of attack."] Inoue replied.

"Launch them anyways, we don't need to destroy the enemy aircraft, just keep them busy and away from the flotilla, any leakers can be handled by our anti-air." He instructed. "We're not sticking around much longer anyways."

["At once."]

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**BNS ****_Ikaruga_****, Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

["All fighters report to the flight deck, repeat, all fighters to the flight deck."]

A pair of Su-11K 'Fishpot-Ds' taxied out to the portside flight deck and locked into the fighter use catapults.

**SCARFACE**

**Black Knights Mercenary Squadron**

**6th Air Division 1st Fighter Squadron**

["Scarface One and Two this is control, standby for takeoff on portside catapult, Scarface Three and Four, standby for takeoff on starboard catapult. Scarface Five through Eight, hold for taxi."]

The EMALS shot the aircraft forwards in sequence, control surfaces tilting as the sleek Sukhoi fighters climbed into the sky and banked away from their carrier ship.

["Nice to see you up and at 'em Scarface."] Someone joked as a pair of modified F-109 foxhounds joined the formation, one with blue trimming and the other with much of the right wing painted red, both bore a red hellhound emblem on their stabilizers.

**GALM**

**Black Knights Mercenary Squadron**

**6th Air Division 66th Fighter Squadron**

Nagase snorted. ["Stow it Foulke, we need to fight off these bastards before they shred the flotilla."]

["Whatever floats your boat Edge, most of these guys don't look like they're packing that much heat though."] Larry 'Solo Wing Pixy' Foulke replied flippantly.

["They don't need too, just buy an opening for Knightmares with heavier weapons to do the work for them. Airships aren't that well armored either, a couple modified anti-ship missiles are all that's really needed to knock down the smaller ones."]

["And how many of them are carrying those?"]

["Can it you two."] Galm One, 'Cipher', muttered softly.

["Alright then buddy."]

The rest of Scarface had launched by now, in addition to Crow and Antares teams, around thirty aircraft grouping up to defend the flotilla.

["Damn I miss Keynote."] Slash mumbled to himself as his Fishpot slid into formation.

["Cut the chatter Scarface Three."] Control ordered.

["Roger that."]

Galm team promptly kicked up their afterburners and began to climb.

["It's time to dive into the fireworks buddy! Yahoo!"] Pixy shouted as he acquired a lock on a leading Britannian Aircraft before leveling out. ["Galm Two, Fox Three, Fox Three!"]

["Galm One, Fox Three, Fox Three."] Cipher's soft but hard voice announced.

A pair active radar guided AIM-7 Sparrow missiles detached from each of their fighters and then rocketed towards the Britannian formation, which scattered, kicking up ECM and dropping countermeasures to trash the shots, which sailed straight on by due to the overload of sensory information and detonated harmlessly in mid-air.

Scarface, Crow, and the Britannians followed suit, both sides exchanging long-range missiles before heading into the merge, chaff filling the skies barreled out of the way incoming warheads on their paths forwards.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Lelouch parked his Gloucester next to the central command office and dismounted, heading inside to utilize its security controls against the Britannians, as a large force of regulars had been called in by OSI via underground tunnels and was now steadily advancing on all fronts.

Waiting for him was admittedly one of the last people he wished to see at this critical juncture.

"It's been a while Lelouch." C2 noted as she crossed her arms and leaned against a support strut on the wall.

"It has, the last I heard from you, you'd threatened to kill me and called me a _traitor_. Then abandoned my forces because you felt like it." He snarked humorlessly.

"Let's be clear about this, we both have problems with eachother at the moment and we're both massive hypocrites who're no better than the other, but don't really have a choice but to work together." She pointed out.

"Agreed, we'll settle this at some point after we've escaped." He replied as he strode over to the command console and input his password. "I assume you 'retired' the warden?"

"He was optimized for riot control, not fighting high-end Reploids, it took me less than a minute to wear down his shields and turn him into slag." C2 replied almost flippantly with a wave of her hand.

"Did you see anyone else there?"

"No, just some R1s. If they were coming this way the fight probably scared them off."

Lelouch frowned deeply, disturbed by the utter lack of Rolo's presence, he figured the teen had been lying anyways. But this meant he was likely meeting up with the OSI kill team.

However, that also implied Rolo had inadvertently left him his security access, which couldn't be revoked during an emergency except at the warden's terminal.

"Good, which means I still have access to all security functions due to control delegation." Lelouch chuckled softly as he scrolled through the high-level settings, finding he was still inside the system.

He immediately turned the remaining internal guns back on and set them to target Britannian IFFs, watching enemy KMFs and infantry flicker off the security projections. "There, that should slow them down a bit."

"What about the security Reploids?" She offered.

"I think you'd rather they go out in a blaze of glory." He muttered softly, C2 raising an eyebrow.

"Explain."

"You know all those Reploids that've been vanishing, petty mavericks and minor dissidents? People who weren't viral and could've been helped or had otherwise been labeled as such by Britannia despite being innocent?"

The Reploid tilted her head curiously. "Yeah?"

"The Britannian ISB has been lobotomizing them and converting them into security Reploids for hellhole prisons like this."

It took C2 a moment to process that, but the look of sheer horror on her face made him feel slightly uncomfortable telling her that, given that she herself had nearly been lobotomized due to the incompetence of Clovis's Code R staff.

What was happening to these Reploids on the other hand was outright _malice_ on the part of Britannia.

"Send them right into the guns of the Britannians, they shouldn't have to suffer an existence like this…" She fumed, her frame shaking with anger.

He briefly heard her mutter 'fucking humans' and raised an eyebrow, clearly she'd picked up some xenophobic traits, though he didn't blame her for the opinion.

Humanity tended to act like a bunch of entitled and bratty children quite often.

Lelouch grunted in agreement as he gave them the new orders. "There, that should buy us additional time, even though over sixty percent of the garrison was already destroyed by either us or OSI." He informed her as he sat down at the command station.

"So, what exactly happened after Kallen fled at Kamine Island?" The Reploid asked, crossing her arms again.

Lelouch scowled. "Suzaku dragged me aboard Liath's airship and I was brought to Pendragon. Where Suzaku handed me over to the Emperor in exchange for his current position."

"That much I figured, but what else happened? You're in a prison guard's uniform, not a jumpsuit or straitjacket." She noted, pointing at his uniform for added emphasis.

Lelouch clenched his fists and turned away. "As far as I can tell the Emperor re-wrote my memories using his Geass. Apparently, he has total control over it."

That caused C2 no end of concern. "He can re-write memories…?" She whispered, yet more uncomfortable memories of Code R resurfacing.

Lelouch nodded gravely. "He's used it on me at least once that I remember. Likely more times."

"I see, I suppose this is a bad time to ask about that anyways… With that out of the way, do you have any orders for me?"

"I need you to help secure my line of advance, there was another guard with me named Rolo, I don't know who he really is, but he's likely OSI given how close he was to me despite his youth, which means he's probably extremely skilled in hand to hand, firearms use, and possibly Knightmare combat." He informed C2, whom nodded. "We need as many veterans getting out of here as possible to succeed in our further plans, otherwise we'll have to start building back up again."

"Right. Should I download any files about the other facilities in the network? This may not be all of the Tokyo survivors."

"Do it, we may need the information further down the line." He ordered, C2 plugging in and downloading the requisite files.

Neither of them noticed the dark violet, almost blue armored Reploid that crossed one of the screens while they were conversing.

* * *

**June 6, 2017 ATB.**

**Interstate-276, en-route to Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

A menagerie of Britannian vehicles rumbled down the closed off highway, including M911/M747 HETS units, a variety of M35, M37, and M39 family trucks, multiple G-line land cruisers, dozens of M422, M38, and M715 LUVs, large numbers of M113 and M114 family APCs, M41, M48, and M60 series tanks, M42, M249 and M247 SPAA vehicles, and MIM-46 mauler SAMs, with self-propelled M108, M109 and M110 howitzers and their supply vehicles bringing up the rear.

Countless towed weapons and Knightmare carriers were also part of the massive convoy streaming back towards Pendragon, CV-47, AV-1, UV-1, T-4, CV-53, CV-46 and CV-54 VTOLs roaring over the formation in unison with fixed wing airpower and the three _Grandberry_-class vessels of the Glinda Knights.

Aboard the bridge of the _Princess Euphemia_, Cornelia frowned as they made their way back to Pendragon. "How much longer until we arrive?" She inquired.

"Provided no breakdowns, another three hours or so Your Highness, but most of our aircraft have used up the bulk of their fuel and they'd have to return to base to load live ammunition anyways, preventing us from sending them ahead." One of the staff officers replied.

Cornelia grimaced. "I see. Contact Guilford, tell him to prepare three teams of the new Vincent series units and perform a tactical lift utilizing float packs to join the Glinda Knights in the old city. I'll join them with additional airlifted forces if I get the authorization while Darlton and the Glaston Knights head up the convoy."

"Understood Your Highness. But it'll take some time to ready them for deployment, especially while we're underway." A Reploid NCO acknowledged. "Should I contact Repliforce?"

"No, most of their units in the region are out of range and will likely be keeping it that way to intercept our enemies should they make a run for the Atlantic. Contact the Eastern Palace and inform Liath and Kururugi of my intentions."

"As you wish."

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Eastern Imperial Palace, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Suzaku strode down a hallway leading to the main hangar, the OSI's failure meant that he had no choice but to sortie.

Franks's opinion could honestly go to hell at this point, it was abundantly clear by now that the Black Knights had no intention of assaulting the Eastern Palace.

On the subject of the OSI, while regular forces under their command had managed to break through via the underground access tunnels, it was now clear that someone competent had taken command of the Black Knights and was decimating the assault troops with unconventional tactics and disturbingly accurate tactical information.

"_Lelouch…"_ He thought grimly, knowing that he'd likely recovered his true memories by now. _Nobody_ was this thorough and effective with the micromanagement of their troops except him.

His personal forces, using a handful of Lionels in addition to Gareths, Galatines, Vincents, Brightons, Vincent Wards, Vincent Snipes, and Vincent Cannons stood at attention, backed by transformable RAI-17 Hurricane VKMFs and the newer Vincent Ward based RAI-18 Spitfire VKMF, the former derived from data acquired from the Somerset and the latter from testing of the Bradford and Tristain.

There were a number of AV-1 Cobra VTOL gunships and some of the new FV-6 Kestrel jump jet fighters as well, the latter being one of the first true forays into the concept after VTOL gunships supplanted older attack jump jets in addition to helicopters.

"Sir Kururugi! Our forces are ready to deploy, we have a special detachment with seven airships and another force of Knightmares from the garrison attached awaiting your orders, and reinforcements sent by Princess Cornelia and Princess Marybell are en-route as we speak." Ledo informed him as he and Schnee stood at attention outside their custom Lionels, the Lionel Blaze and Lionel Snipe respectively.

He nodded at them before realizing someone was absent. "Where's…"

"He's already in his frame sir." Schnee interrupted calmly, gesturing at the customized Blue Lionel standing nearby with his chin.

Suzaku nodded and turned to board the Lancelot Conquista, mechanical arms loading its VARIS rifle, MVS units, float pack, and Hadron Bazooka onto the frame after he had confirmed activation.

Elevators took him and his forces up to the launch deck, where the Lancelot got into its trademark ready stance.

"Suzaku Kururugi! Lancelot Conquista! Sortieing!" He announced as the Conquista shot forwards, wings spreading with the pack's float system and engines coming to life as he soared into the sky, his forces following soon after.

* * *

**Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

"New contacts coming from the direction of the palace! A full battle force backed by three _Logres_-class air cruisers and four _Caerleon_-class destroyers… They're being led by the Lancelot and the _Avalon_!" The Radar tech shouted.

Inoue let out a long, heartfelt, obscenity. "Inform Zero _immediately_!" She barked at the comms operator.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

"How long until they arrive?" Lelouch hissed. _"Of course it's Suzaku, it's _always_ fucking Suzaku."_

["I give us five-ten minutes at best."]

He slammed his fist against his Gloucester's cockpit frame. "Damnit! Can anyone stop them!?"

["The Gurens have supplementary air glide systems, alongside the new production model seventh gens our escorts are carrying but… The Gurens sortied without them, and the other machines don't have pilots assigned yet, only the Swords are rated on the type anyways due to their similarities to the Gekkas."] Inoue explained.

"Damn… If the Lancelot gets inside the facility before the loading is complete, we're finished. So make sure you get pilots to those machines ASAP and have the new systems ready for installation immediately in the off-chance we get to use them." Lelouch instructed her. "Is there anything else we can do?"

["The _Ikaruga_ has a pair of super-heavy hadron cannons onboard, but we're only getting one shot."]

Lelouch smirked softly, managing to calm himself enough to detail his orders. "Target the main body then, we can isolate the Lancelot easily enough, it's the backup troops he'll force us to let slip by that'll get us even if we do lock him down."

["Understood, we'll fire as soon as the cannons are charged."]

Lelouch nodded and cut the channel, frowning as the large scale elevator he, Urabe, Kallen, and C2 were riding down on stopped at a large atrium, the doors sliding open shortly thereafter.

"What need does a _prison_ have for a room like this?" He snorted softly, figuring it was due to the usual Britannian pomp and overcompensation.

The tower was also designed to hold far more prisoners than it was ever expected to contain, hence the somewhat absurd amount of guards.

["Zero, our rear guard hasn't reported in."] C2 stated warily after a moment after leaping up to a hidden vantagepoint. ["And I don't see their Knightmares, either intact or wrecked, around either."]

Lelouch frowned as they made their way into the center of the atrium, Kallen and Urabe taking the lead.

* * *

C2 narrowed her eyes warily as she spotted a tall shape appearing in the darkness. "Knightmare ahead." She warned.

["One of ours?"] Lelouch inquired curiously.

Her echolocation sensors pinged off its frame. "Too lanky and thin, it's Britannian, a Lancelot derived type. Vincent based on the sonar feedback I'm getting. Switching to high intensity low light vision to confirm."

["Too late!"] Kallen shouted as the Vincent made the first move, the Britannian Knightmare leaping forwards into the air and landing in front of the three Black Knights controlled frames.

* * *

"Kallen, Urabe, engage him!" Lelouch barked.

["Roger!"] They shouted in unison as they charged the Knightmare.

["We've got the advantage in close range combat!"] Kallen noted as they moved in.

The Vincent drew its MVS from its holsters, holding the spear halves crossed in front of itself.

["TOO SLOW!"] Urabe mocked as he and Kallen prepared to strike it.

The gold Knightmare flickered and vanished, reappearing not far in front of Lelouch, the weapons arms of both the Guren and Gekka suddenly left disabled.

["It vanished?! Just like that!?"]

["That speed! As fast as a _god_!"] Urabe breathed in awe.

The Vincent promptly combined its MVS blades into their spear form, powering them up in the process.

"That can't be, not even Suzaku can move that fast. It must be something else." Lelouch whispered as the Vincent spun its spear. "It's going to charge!" He realized with growing dread as it vanished again.

And then the Vincent suddenly reappeared only halfway to him as a high-powered sniper buster shot blew its left arm clean off at the shoulder joint.

Lelouch blinked, utterly stunned and attempting to process what just happened as the enemy Knightmare staggered backwards. The pilot no doubt as equally confused as he was.

* * *

Rolo's eyes widened in shock. _"Someone actually shot me!? But how!? My Geass would've stopped their perception of time!__"_

"Unless..." He whispered softly, an inkling feeling about what had happened stirring at the back of his mind.

He directed the Vincent to look at where the shot had come from as he felt an unusual sensation creep up on him.

Fear.

* * *

C2 grinned sadistically as she gazed at the Vincent through the vertically stacked cameras at the center of the currently lowered targeting visor of her Search Soul. "Gotcha, fucker." She growled softly.

The machine turned to face her, remaining shoulder factsphere glowing.

It recoiled visibly as it saw her, further confirming her suspicions.

The Reploid's grin widened as she brought the long barreled arm cannon back up to and switched view modes to the Sniper Buster's inherent scope. "Nice trick you've got there; too bad for you that Geass doesn't work on Reploids, our computer brains work on a different frequency from human wetware from what I can tell." She whispered as her buster's pre-charged charge shot capacitor cells cycled. "_My_ trick doesn't have that limitation."

The Knightmare began to move, attempting to escape before she could fire again.

"Power gear." She commanded, a red aura glowing around her as she charged up her sniper buster again, overclocking the weapon to get maximum power out of her next few shots.

There was a dull tone as her combat systems auto-locked on the evasive target.

She fired once it was confirmed, the Vincent barely skating out of the way in time with the blast blowing a chunk of the wall apart as it missed.

* * *

Rolo grimaced as C2 kept firing on him. "This is callsign Neiberos, I'm falling back. Vincent has taken heavy damage from an enemy Reploid and can no longer engage in combat operations." He reported as his Geass flared again to prevent Zero and his subordinates from pinning him down while he retreated.

He felt pain in his heart but ignored it, three short bursts wouldn't kill him.

* * *

Lelouch blinked again as the Vincent flickered around three times before escaping into the corridors.

And then he noticed a scorched crater on the wall that appeared each time it flickered back into being, courtesy of C2.

"_Geass!"_ He realized almost immediately, there was literally no other explanation he could think of for why he, Kallen, and Urabe were being affected, yet C2 wasn't.

He sighed in relief as he contacted her. "Thanks for the save C2."

["No problem, I realized the bastard probably had a Geass that affected time perception the moment I saw him stride right past Kallen and Urabe and strike their Knightmares while all of you stood there without reacting for a couple seconds."] She chimed in on their two-way channel. ["Can't let you die at this juncture anyways, especially when you're not even _close_ to repenting for what you've done and I sure as hell don't want to pull my share alone."]

He snorted derisively, knowing she was right, before switching channels. "Right, let's get down to the hangar, we've probably seen the last of him for the moment, or at least so long as he thinks C2's with us." He ordered.

["R… Roger…"] A shaken Kallen acknowledged.

["Understood."] Urabe replied.

There would likely be an explanation to the Swords, or maybe just Urabe, about this some time in the future.

But for now, they had to escape.

* * *

**Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

"All capacitors showing full charge." A weapons officer reported onboard the _Ikaruga_. "Targeting solution is good."

"Right, keep the fighters clear of our lanes of fire." Inoue ordered as the dull thump of the _Ikaruga's_ fore linear cannon shook the vessel as it fired at one of the F-11 Sea Vixens that was trying to set up a missile run, forcing the fighter to break off.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Gefjun field stable! Excess discharge and thermal buildup within tolerable levels!" An operator reported.

The _Ikaruga_ began to turn, two orange half-dome shaped panels opened, Gefjun field emitters emerging and forming crown-shaped prongs as the beaklike cannon emitters slid apart.

"Steady… Steady…" Inoue cautioned.

The Ikaruga lined up with the main bulk of Suzaku's personal forces and part of the city's garrison.

Inoue gave the order. "Hadron cannons! Fire!"

Twin beams of black and red hellfire lanced out towards the Britannian forces.

* * *

Suzaku's eyes widened as he saw the glow. "EVADE!" He barked as his personal troops scattered to avoid being hit by the beams, the FV-6s, AV-1s and VKMFs being fastest made it out almost unscathed.

Likewise the _Avalon_, flying above the formation, barely avoided being hit by ascending. Its blaze luminous flaring brightly as the beams shot under it.

"Lloyd! Status!"

["A little shaken, but we're alright, though I think Cecile almost-"] Lloyd cut off suddenly, uttering a sharp cry as Cecile interrupted him violently. Suzaku shook his head, thankful they were okay even as Lloyd pleaded for Cecile to let go of his arm in the background of the radio transmission.

The main force however, was _not_, the utter vaporization of many of the Knightmares aside, one of the _Caerleons_ had been reduced to flaming slag by a direct hit that simply ripped through its blaze luminous and began careening out of the sky towards an industrial district, globs of molten metal trailing the vessel like an obscene meteor shower as it fell.

Meanwhile two of the _Logres_ were trailing smoke and fire as they burned, their left and right wings respectively had been partially melted by the blasts.

Switching channels, Suzaku addressed the damaged ships. "_Belfast_ and _Sirius_! This is Sir Kururugi! Break off and attempt an emergency landing at the closest capable airfield or the river if you can't make it, you cannot maintain altitude in that state, let alone engage in combat!" Suzaku ordered.

["Understood, my lord, we'll radio in that we require aid."] The radio officer of the _Belfast_ grunted as the air cruiser began to turn towards the immense runways at Pendragon international, extending its wheeled gear for an emergency landing.

"_Sirius,_ respond! _Sirius_!" Suzaku demanded as the other airship began to turn towards the hangar where a group of air transports had landed to pick up the Black Knights, he noticed lifepods, VTOLs, shuttles, a few Knightmares with float packs, and parachuting crewmen bailing from the airship.

["Our float system is too badly damaged to make it beyond the suburbs or urban areas my lord, at the rate we're descending we won't even make the river. In the interest of avoiding civilian casualties we're sacrificing the ship to destroy the enemy before they can retreat. All Hail Britannia!"] The captain of the _Sirius_ finally replied as the ship began to pick up speed.

Suzaku nodded grimly. "Darwinspeed _Sirius_." He replied, saluting the doomed airship as it went on its final mission. His eyes narrowing, he switched channels to the rest of the force that was still combat capable. "This is Sir Kururugi to all forces! Engage and destroy the enemy! Regular forces are to hold the surroundings and aid in search and rescue in the industrial district while our VTOL fighters aid the Air Force and Naval Air Service squadrons! My own forces will cover the airspace around Temple Tower while my entourage will enter the structure with me, ZERO DIES TODAY!"

["YES, MY LORD!"] They acknowledged as they followed him into battle.

He was still an Eleven in their eyes, but he had since proven his loyalty to the crown many times over, and it was long by now known that few in Britannia's service _detested_ Zero more than he did.

The Lancelot Conquista touched down in a gaping wound in the tower that had been blasted open by an air force strike plane earlier, landspinners deploying and float wings folding up whilst he drew the machine's MVS blades.

Three custom Lionels landed behind him.

The White Death of Britannia and his entourage had arrived.

Suzaku wasted no time reminding the Black Knights _why_ he'd earned that title, carving into a pair of hapless Ronin almost immediately after landing before tearing off at high speed down the hallways, the three custom Lionels trailing him adding their own skills to the chaos and making the group seem more like the four horsemen of the apocalypse than a group of Britannian Knightmares.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

["THIS IS P10! OH GOD THE LANCELO-"] P10 began before being suddenly silenced as their Knightmare was destroyed.

Lelouch watched in horror via the TACMAP as_ four_ units carved through his frontline, which had been reinforced by Sutherlands and Ride Armors stolen from the prison's garrison, with seemingly supernatural ease.

Already two dozen units had been lost, mostly the aforementioned Sutherlands and Ride Armors.

Suzaku was, like at Tokyo, aiming to kill as well based on telemetry data showing him deliberately hitting cockpits and Reploid pilots directly with his attacks.

"Damn you Suzaku…" Lelouch hissed softly. "C2! Hurry up with those repairs!" He barked.

["Gimmie a moment! I'm still working on the Guren's external armor plate!"] She snapped back as she looked up, her buster having been fitted with a welding attachment for this job. ["I'm not Rakshata you know!"]

"Well just make it workable, we don't have time to worry about the armor!" He snapped at her, panic starting to set in.

He was so close and now it was all starting to fall apart. Just like it _always_ did at such a critical juncture.

_"Adaptation under pressure isn't my strongest suit..."_ Lelouch admitted mentally as he clenched at his Knightmare's controls.

The entire building quaked violently as the _Sirius_ impacted and blew up. "STATUS REPORT!" Lelouch snapped, actually panicked now.

["A Britannian air cruiser almost crashed into the hangar, minor casualties on our end but it got the final transport that just landed, now all of our rear-guard forces are trapped!"] Shirley reported.

Lelouch felt a pit grow in his stomach. He didn't _want_ to have to resort to the backup, risky and foolhardy as it was, but it looks like he no longer had a choice, he switched channels. "Nemo? Are the charges set?" He said after taking a breath to try and calm himself down, if he gave out orders like that it would drop morale even further.

["Almost, why?"]

"We're switching to plan B, modification 41A-140, protect the designated charges with your lives." He ordered.

["You know who you're talking to, right?"] She replied flippantly.

He snorted. "Right then." Switching channels again, he addressed Inoue. "Inoue, I need all of our air forces to withdraw _immediately_. Protect the remaining transports!"

["But Zero!"]

"We can't afford to lose this many troops, get them out of here before more enemy reinforcements can arrive!"

There was a hesitant pause before she acknowledged. ["Understood Zero, we're attempting to withdraw as ordered, but it'll take time to break free of the air battle."]

"I'll handle that, just get ready to make a break for it when I give you the opening." He replied and cut the line.

["L-… Zero, what happens now?"] Kallen interjected nervously.

Lelouch smirked. "The Chinese embassy is nearby, is it not? And there's a diplomatic group inspecting it at the moment to see if it needs to be transferred to New Pendragon, correct?" He inquired of her.

["Yes… But? I don't understand!? "]

["I do."] C2 broke in. ["It's crazy and might get us all killed if they discover it, but it's our only shot left."]

Lelouch grinned. "Now, all we need is to drive the White Knight out of this doomed castle." He murmured softly.

Suzaku had interfered once too many times, and he would continue to do so until their little feud was finished and done with.

Or one of them died.

["Well, Kallen's good to go when you are."] C2 reported as she hopped over to the Gloucester, alighting on its cockpit pod with ease while the Guren tested its arm to ensure everything was functioning properly.

"Right then, Q3, B0, regroup at my position, have your squads fall back to zone R02 and set up a redoubt." He ordered.

["Roger."] Shirley and Nemo acknowledged without hesitation.

* * *

The Lancelot impaled another Ronin on an MVS before using it to absorb fire from its comrades in stolen Sutherlands.

"How many more Schnee?" Suzaku asked as he made the Lancelot kick the overhauled Sutherland off the sword before its Yggdrasil drive exploded.

["Looks like a few small teams, all of them falling back from the hangar. Seems like they hijacked a lot of Sutherlands from the garrison to make up for their lack of numbers."] Schnee reported as he blew apart a Sutherland with a shot to the cockpit from his Hadron Blaster.

"As if that'd matter, they'd have had better luck using RPGs and ambush tactics." Suzaku jeered as he gunned down a fleeing Sutherland before it could break from his line of fire.

Ledo likewise shot down a Scopedog as it attempted to flee, blowing the ride armor apart with his VARIS carbine. ["Target down."]

"Where's Zero?"

["There's a concentration of five Knightmares not far from us, two of them have energy readings consistent with Guren types while the others are two Gekkas and a Gloucester, so that's probably him."] Schnee reported as his machine's torso mounted factspheres sealed up.

"Roger, let's move on them." Suzaku ordered as the Lancelot shot down the hallway, the Lionels in tow.

A small robotic snake observed them as they passed a junction.

* * *

["They're coming, four of them. Lancelot's leading them, so at least some of the troops they were engaging survived thankfully. Though that's probably because they're gunning directly for you."] C2 reported from her perch atop the Gloucester's cockpit pod, using the Snake Soul to monitor the enemy's progress. ["Aaand the Sakuradite radiation from the Lancelot fried the next one. Fuck, looks like it's got an overhaul, some kind of bazooka on it too, it might have higher specs than the Guren as is."]

Lelouch sweated nervously, he was effectively dead weight, reliant on Nemo, Kallen, Shirley, C2 and Urabe to protect him as he withdrew.

["Hang on… My sensors are getting a bit fuz… Oh _shit_!"] C2 shouted as the Lancelot blew through the wall in front of them with its hadron bazooka, the white Knightmare emerging from the smoke and drawing an MVS after it stowed the bazooka whilst turning on them.

The entire group came to a screeching halt as Suzaku stared them down, the Guren Mark II taking the lead. ["Zero! He's _mine_!"] Kallen snarled as she raised the Guren's radiant wave arm.

Behind them, a blue Lionel appeared, leveling a VARIS repeater at them, Shirley turning to face it. ["Just go! We'll hold them!"]

"Right!" Lelouch acknowledged bitterly as he, Nemo, and Urabe continued down a side passage with C2 in tow.

* * *

Suzaku narrowed his eyes at the Guren. "Kallen… Get out of my way!" He shouted over the external speakers of the Lancelot as he raised the Conquista's VARIS rifle and opened fire, the Lancelot's green 'eyes' gleaming in the dark.

["MAKE ME YOU BASTARD!"] The redhead yelled back as she lunged towards him, the blue 'eyes' of the Guren flaring in kind. The Lancelot leapt and twirled over her, using its slash harkens to pull further away from the Guren as she blocked its ranged attack with the wave surger.

Two sub-arms that'd been mounted on the Guren's back swung up and over, a spray of 30mm cannon shells streaming towards the Lancelot from the twin chainguns mounted on them. ["You're not the only one with tricks Suzaku!"] Kallen growled at him.

Suzaku's face contorted into a snarl as he blocked the incoming fire with the blaze luminous before boosting forwards, Kallen blocking his lunge in turn with the wave surger again, Suzaku releasing the doomed MVS and backing off immediately as it fell to the floor and melted into a sizzling puddle, the Guren jumping back and using a wall to increase its momentum as Kallen launched herself at him.

* * *

Shirley grunted as she used her revolving blade sword to block a Maser Vibration Lance strike from the enemy Lionel.

The enemy Knightmare backed off before stowing its VARIS repeater and drawing a large shield which expanded outwards to form a defense against her Radiant wave buster.

Shirley's blood chilled as she saw the Ashford seal, the same one used on school uniforms and generally everything else it was deemed necessary for, marked on the shield the enemy Knightmare was carrying.

Her worst suspicions were confirmed when the pilot spoke.

She recognized his voice almost immediately.

["Black Knights, all you do is prance around being self-righteous and getting innocent people killed due to Zero's ambitions, you make me sick…"] The opposing pilot sneered as the customized Lionel's grey optics glowed menacingly in sharp contrast to the soft yellow-green of the Guren Mark II Kai's own optical sensors.

"_Rivalz…!?"_

Before she could consider opening comms to try and talk to him, the customized Lionel lunged towards her at top speed, Shirley barely evading in the process, the ginger remorsefully opening fire with her machine's radiant wave buster, bolts of crackling reddish energy lancing out towards the Lionel which spun out of the way, drawing its VARIS and returning fire in the process.

* * *

The Gloucester continued onwards alone with C2 still atop its back, Nemo and Urabe had encountered Ledo and Schnee not long after they'd broken contact with Suzaku, staying behind to hold them off, leaving the two alone for the moment.

Then a salvo of missiles from out of the darkness nearly tore them apart.

["What the hell was that?!"] Lelouch gasped as he narrowly evaded the incoming fire, almost throwing C2 off the Gloucester in the process.

C2 leapt off the Knightmare and scanned about after the missiles detonated behind them. Looking around for a few moments before spotting a single red optic glowing in the darkness.

Then the alarm rang in her head, a familiar one she'd heard many times during the Uprising while fighting maverick leaders.

**[****TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING.****]**

**[****WARNING****]**

**[****TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING.****]**

She barely brought up her shield in time to block the energy blast that issued from the shadows, the glow briefly illuminating her opponent.

If it were possible, the lubricants in her body would've run cold. "ZERO! RUN!" She screamed as Vile Mk 2 leapt from the shadows, C2 narrowly blocking his shield slam with her own shield.

["C2!"]

C2 twitched her head out of the way of a beam that sizzled over her shoulder, Vile clearly having forgone the rate of fire of physical ammo in exchange for raw penetration and damage output. "JUST GO!" She urged him.

The Gloucester reluctantly sped off, C2 turning her full attention back to Vile now that Lelouch was out of the line of fire. "How the hell are you alive!? X and I fucking killed you after Zero blew himself up trying to give us a decent shot at taking you down!"

"What can I say… I got _better_." Vile remarked dryly as he jabbed a knee into her gut and fired a napalm bomb at the same time.

He let go of C2 as she recoiled away, quickly switching to the Wave Soul to douse the flames with fire retardant, the Reploid thankful her armor was black anyways otherwise the scorch mark would raise some serious concern.

Vile lunged at her before she could recover, grabbing C2 by the shoulder before repeatedly slamming her in the abdomen with his right fist. "And. Of. Course. I. Remember. Your. Stupid. Fucking. Face." He said calmly as he punctuated each word with a punch.

Had C2 been human the wind would've been thoroughly knocked out of her.

"_Stronger than his old body… Way stronger… Need to break off and force him to disengage…"_ She thought as she fired her leg thrusters to wrench herself free of his grip.

Normally she would've been absolutely_ elated_ at facing a decent opponent, Vile instead drew a feeling of cold dread from her, with X having spitefully noted after they double teamed him that Vile should've been an S rather than an A-rank Hunter due to his combat potential alone.

They'd only managed to bring him down thanks to Zero's sacrifice blowing up his ride armor. And even then it had been touch and go during the fight despite her and X working in concert, a further testament to his abilities, even in spite of their armor.

Alone? The best she could hope was a draw or to pull something out of her ass and then run away.

Switching to the Napalm Soul, two rectangular pods that had manifested on her shoulders flipped open and launched a set of missiles at Vile. Without missing a beat, she dove to the side as Vile leapt from the fireball, all guns blazing away.

Darting about using her boosters to prevent Vile from getting a target fix on her, C2 continued firing away with her buster, hoping to chip down his shields and force him to withdraw, golden bolts of energy racing towards her target.

Far easier said than done, considering his endurance in their past confrontations.

That and him using his own physical shield to block her attacks. More concerningly, given he hadn't make a single wisecrack beyond his opening lines yet, C2 knew something had changed in Vile since his defeat and death.

This was _personal_ to him.

She blocked a strike from Vile with her right arm's bracer armor before switching over to her drills and firing them up.

"Bet you didn't get any melee options you bastard!" C2 growled before firing up her thrusters and dashing straight at him.

Vile rolled away and blasted her in the side with his shoulder cannon without a word, sending her stumbling away, C2 retaliating with a charge shot that caught him off-guard and sent him reeling.

[WARNING. SHIELDS AT 20%.] C2's systems manager declared. C2 doubted Vile was doing much better but his were likely at around fifty.

"_Fuck… Gotta try something, otherwise I'm toast…"_

To be fair, the first time she'd fought him she didn't knew she _had_ energy shielding as an option, which spoke to her sheer dumb luck.

C2 glanced up at the roof, then at Vile as she remembered something. An utter asspull, but it might save her life. "Hey Vile!" She shouted.

"What do you want bitch?" He scoffed at her as he stopped, seemingly bemused, and amused, by this.

She shifted to the Gravity Soul, turning violet with several unusual attachments sprouting from her armor, a shit eating grin on her face. "You ever want to know what 20G feels like?" C2 asked as she raised her arm, control vanes swinging into place around her hand and activating.

She staggered as the floor under her shifted but remained upright, focusing the gravitational field on Vile.

Vile's eye widened as he crumpled to the ground, unable to even raise the slowly bending cannon on his back as he was subjected to a force of gravity that in the solar system was currently second only to that of the _sun_, contorting his armor and severely damaging his weapons systems while simultaneously driving him further into the floor.

C2 briefly considered flinging him at the ceiling but her precipitously low energy levels from the sheer drain of the Gravity Soul's primary weapon caused her to rethink that idea, especially since Vile _hadn't_ been crushed outright despite the gravitational forces being exerted on him.

So she simply released Vile and bolted, knowing he wouldn't be able to pursue her anymore.

Vile glowered, simmering in his rage as he watched her flee.

Two footfalls sounded behind him after she was long gone.

"What'dya want?" He asked as he turned to look at Forte, the modified copy of X standing smugly over him.

Speaking honestly, he'd gladly punch in both his face _and_ the original's simultaneously if he had the chance.

"Doctor Serges was quite aggravated you left without thanking him for his repair work…" The Black and Gold Reploid chided.

"You here to drag me back to him…?" The violet armored Reploid asked, his eye narrowing.

"Hardly, that old bastard and his little trio can shove it, holding me back with, and I quote, 'plans' and 'goals I can't possibly understand'. I can be patient and wait things out, but I won't just sit around when shit hits the fan. I'll take you to someone who can do the work off the books, because we have quite the mutual interest after all." He offered.

"What the hell could that possibly be?"

A psychotic grin graced his features as the Irregulars, having gone rogue due to the repeated defeats they'd suffered against C2 and their resulting replacement by newer and more advanced C-line Reploids, emerged from the shadows behind him, including the looming form of Heavy Lobster. "Making X and his little bondmate _suffer_." Forte chuckled.

If it were possible, Vile would've grinned himself. "No need to polish it up with her, you had me at_ X_ and _suffering_."

Forte's grin widened as he offered his hand to the downed Reploid. "Welcome to the Irregular Hunters then Vile."

Vile reached up and took it. "Irregular Hunters? Heh, that's an ironic name." He chuckled.

"Oh, you don't even know the _half _of it."

* * *

**Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

Pixy's Foxhound banked hard as he evaded another missile. ["Damn, out of ammo."]

["You're not the only one!"] Crow 3, 'PJ', replied as he pulled his Wraith into a climb, trying to evade the Britannian Foxhound that was latched onto his tail.

A spray of gunfire hit it in the left engine, forcing Sorcerer 3 to disengage, smoke trailing from his aircraft as Galm 1 shot up past him.

["Next time, don't try to outclimb a Foxhound with a Wraith, try to outturn it and get away."] Galm 1 admonished Crow 3 as he latched onto a Britannian Wraith that had been particularly troublesome.

["Antares Five and Crow Four have been shot down!"] Someone cried out as they flashed past the side of one of the airships.

["Someone get this guy with the orange wolf emblem off my ass!"]

["On it."]

["This is _Ikaruga_! Energy spike detected!"] The airship warned, cutting into the radio chatter.

And then the clouds to the west _split_ as if god himself had slashed a knife through them.

The radiant wave shields of the _Shimakaze_ flared violently as something impacted them at hypersonic speeds, draining them to near zero in an instant.

["What the _fuck_ was that!?"] Tamaki yelped from the cockpit of his new Ronin, acting as a movable flak gun on the _Ikaruga_'s port flight deck as an ear-shattering crack echoed out over the city.

["Looked like some kind of high velocity railgun based on the trajectory and the kick behind it."] Scarface 1, Phoenix, noted with some concern.

["New radar contact at angels three… Looking into registry… It's a BASA IFF."] There was a short pause as control looked into it. ["Aircraft ID'd as X-02, codename: Wyvern…"]

["So that's why they renamed the EB-57 to the Wyrm…"] One of the ex-Britannian pilots muttered.

["So… This is the lot that's brazenly raided the old capitol in broad daylight."] A hard voice mused on an open channel. ["Tell me Black Knights… Did getting your leader back give you a reason to fight again?"]

The Wyvern entered visual range, a two-seater with a carbon black body and orange trimmed control surfaces.

A color scheme that once struck eternal terror into those who flew against Britannia.

Flying alongside it were six carbon black F-14 Skyfangs.

**SOL**

**Britannian Aeronautics and Space Administration.**

**68th Experimental Testing and Development Squadron.**

["Those markings, they're the flames of hell…"] One of the merc pilots whispered.

["Mister X… The former Knight of Eight…"] Another breathed in horror.

["The King of the Sky... The Archange."] Cipher stated softly, almost in awe rather than fear.

["Alright Black Knights. Show me your resolve as pilots."] General Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage of the BASA stated simply over an open channel as he accelerated ahead of his wingmen, whom broke into pairs and began to pick their targets.

["Oh fuck, we're dead. We're so fucking _dead_."] Crow Seven whispered. ["Mister X _and _being low on ammo?!"]

["Galm One, engaging."] Cipher reported as he broke formation and charged directly at the Wyvern.

["Scarface One, engaging."] Phoenix acknowledged as he followed.

["Sorry buddy, but Phoenix is gonna have to be your dance partner for this one, I'm winchester right now and I'd rather not get blown out of the sky."] Pixy admitted as he turned and headed back to the _Ikaruga_.

["Copy that."] Galm 1 replied as his Foxhound and Scarface 1's Fishpot engaged the enemy aircraft, missiles streaking out and slamming into its Blaze Luminous field harmlessly, much to the shock of the two merc pilots, who hadn't anticipated the tech being deployed on fighters yet.

["I see... So some among you are predators as well..."] Mihaly appraised as he snapped about. ["Let me see if you have what it takes."]

The Wyvern banked hard and pulled into a turn, wings unfolding and elevators shifting to take a form more suitable for tight maneuvering as it slowed while its float system began to flow green, tightening the turn further without sacrificing much energy, before it pulsed and gave the plane an added push as it came out of the turn.

The breakthroughs in solar core technology derived from studying C2 had been _essential_ to giving the plane enough power to supply all its equipment with energy without compromising the plane's operational time.

In short, what had been created was thus far the ultimate expression of a fighter jet, a machine that could engage in nearly all aspects of an air battle almost equally with little to no repercussions on its performance.

Its only hinderance was its utterly _obscene_ pricetag, the plane easily pricing in at as much as a fully equipped guided missile cruiser _without_ factoring in development costs.

And it was in the hands of one of the most skilled jet jocks to have ever lived.

A bay underneath the Wyvern's port intake opened and a missile rack slid out.

Once Mihaly had a good solution he loosed his shot, Cipher barely evading as his comparatively obsolete Foxhound rolled hard and then flung into a turn, pulling Gs that would've knocked out lesser pilots.

The three aircraft closed to the merge with eachother.

And the battle was joined.

* * *

**Temple Tower, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

C2 rushed into the room Lelouch was occupying and stopped, the Reploid leaning against the wall as she tried to recover some energy from her sub-tanks.

Lelouch eyed her. "What exactly did you do?" He inquired without turning to face her, continuing to direct Kallen and Shirley away from their opponents.

"Do what…?"

"C2, the entire _tower_ shifted on its _foundations_ and I lost all cameras in the sector where you were engaging Vile. What in the actual _fuck_ did you do?" Lelouch snapped.

The Reploid blinked, that particular obscenity was rare for Lelouch. Usually it was 'damn' or 'hell' or occasionally 'shit' when he actually swore. "I may have… increased the local area around Vile to 20Gs…"

Lelouch stopped what he was doing, turned to face her, and then facepalmed. _Hard_. "You're an _idiot_. Do you fathom your own rashness and stupidity sometimes?"

"I dunno, do you?" She retorted, hands on her hips.

"My own hypocrisy aside, you do realize you just upset a delicate balance that affects our _entire solar system_ because you panicked right?"

She gestured at him to go on.

"C2, for all you know, you've just set at least _one_ near-earth-object on a direct _collision course_ with our planet." He explained.

The Reploid's face paled visibly as her eyes widened. "Well… Good thing I never used the Galaxy Soul then…" She muttered in a hushed tone.

"And what… Pray tell, does that do?"

"Uh… How much gravity does a Black Hole have?"

Lelouch felt his entire body go weak. "You can generate **Black Holes**, a phenomenon that is one of the strongest gravitational forces in the universe that is known to humans or Reploids… A force that could, in theory, _destroy the _**_entire solar system _**if not managed properly… And use it as a _weapon_…" He sighed and found the strength to pinch his nose, closing his eyes as he rethought the depths of human stupidity. "What possessed some idiot to even _think_ that was a good idea…"

The flustered look on C2's face told him all he needed to know. "Research tool…?" He muttered as he felt the will to live slowly drain from his body.

"Research tool…" The Reploid admitted sheepishly as she twiddled her thumbs.

Lelouch groaned audibly. "Of course, this is the same civilization that decided messing with the fabric of _time_ was a good idea… Why not give the rest of the laws of physics the finger as well while they're at it? I'm utterly in awe of the fact they _somehow_ didn't kill themselves in the process of just jumping straight to that technological level."

"Uh… What about Kallen and Shirley…?" C2 asked, trying to change the subject.

"Right… I can bemoan the stupidity of others later…" He sighed as he turned back to the comms and clicked his mic back on. "Status report."

["Suzaku's still on us, so's the damn blue guy! And the fucking former Knight of Eight is engaging our air units with some sort of superplane using tech from the Lancelot!"] Kallen shouted back over the radio.

Lelouch felt his blood chill, he'd seen General Shilage fly once as a young boy. The man was nothing short of a _monster _in the skies even in standard aircraft. With the aircraft equivalent to the _Lancelot_ he'd be damn near unstoppable. "I have a plan, Urabe and Nemo have already shook theirs, so we'll prepare a trap." He glanced over at C2 and mouthed something.

The Reploid pulled up something on her visor and nodded back at him.

"Right, take junction B-7, and dump everything you have into your locomotive systems before you hit the intersection." He ordered.

["Roger!"]

["Right…!"]

Lelouch leaned back as he counted down mentally as the Gurens reached the junction point.

He smirked as C2 blew the charges just as they passed, a massive gout of flame ripping through all four corridors leading off it.

Before the security cameras went out, he saw the Lancelot and the Blue Lionel recoil back and reverse course.

"_Interfere with my plans on _day one_ for the _second_ time in a row will you… You definitely deserve this much as punishment Suzaku."_

"Junction is knocked out, looks like they're bailing out the side of the building to try and head us off via a tactical jump using their float units, Kallen and Shirley are riding an elevator up as we speak. Sixteen seconds until they reach safe zone. Everyone else is already in the clear and the downed aircrew are sheltered and awaiting our signal." The Reploid reported.

There was a brief pause. "They're clear."

Lelouch chuckled. "Well then, all conditions have been met. It's time to head to the next phase of the operation." He stated as he pulled out a detonator, flicked the safety cover up, and pressed the switch, slowly rolling into maniacal laughter as his plan was set in motion.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Explosions ripped through Temple Tower, consuming those Britannian troops who remained inside as the Lancelot Conquista and its three Lionel armsmen watched as the immense structure began to buckle and collapse. The split halves of the megascraper separating a bit before tilting and falling over unoccupied settlement plates, hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, glass, and steel crashing down to earth with the force of a felled titan.

The fighters dueling above and the Knightmares all around had scattered at the first sign of trouble, some being buffeted by the suction left in the wake of Temple Tower as it fell, the Black Knights taking advantage of the disaster to make a break for it, recovering many of their remaining fighters in the process.

Suzaku's fists clenched around the control sticks as he watched the dust begin to settle around the downed prison megascraper. _"Lelouch… This is exactly your sort of hallmark… Isn't it?"_ He mused as he set down nearby.

"Get our breaching and recovery teams in! I want every square inch of the rubble searched, leave no plate or stone unturned!" He barked angrily as units moved in to carry out his orders.

Nearly twenty minutes passed before he got a priority signal from one of his subordinates. "Report."

["Sir Kururugi! We're getting an unidentified broadcast signal over all channels!"]

Suzaku frowned. "What? Who is it?"

["It seems to be Zero!"]

Suzaku's eyes widened.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**Abel City, Australia.**

Maverick Hunters piled into one of the rec rooms, chattering wildly as an image of Zero, in a slightly recolored and modified outfit standing in front of the flag of the Black Knights appeared on the screen.

[="People of the world, hear me! I, **ZERO**, have returned!"] He declared, C2 standing just to his side with her visor an opaque violet and her battle mask sealed shut. Both in the exact same positions they'd been in when he'd first revealed himself before the world atop the replica of Clovis's limo that fateful day in August two years ago, her black armor with its silver trimming gleaming in the light while verdant hair flowed down behind her from the back of her helmet.

X frowned as he saw his bondmate on screen. _"So, it really has begun anew... C2... Don't get yourself killed okay?"_ He thought warily, hoping that she'd try to avoid unnecessary risks.

He'd already lost his closest friend, he couldn't lose her too.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights Hideout, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Diethard cackled like a madman as he saw Zero's mask appear on screen. "The omega level frequency I set up! Only one other person even knows about it! This has to be him! It's really Zero!" He cackled as he held his laptop in his hands, hanging on Zero's every word, much to the consternation of his subordinates.

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**Imperial Landship HIMLS ****_Princess Euphemia_****, en-route to Old Pendragon, Britannian homeland.**

="While this may seem surprising to some of you. Britannia foolishly, and _falsely_, claimed it had killed me without offering proof to the deed. As for why was unable to reappear before today, I was out of contact with my forces and in hiding for some time to gauge the state of the world following my failure in Japan. It was when they raided Temple Tower. Believing I was held there against my will due to a trap by the Britannian OSI, that I managed to return to them to save the Black Knights!"]

"That bastard…" Cornelia hissed. "Where is he!?"

"The broadcast appears to be coming from… The Chinese embassy in Old Pendragon your highness!"

Cornelia turned back to the screen and narrowed her eyes. "What's your game Zero…? Are the Chinese actually involved, or did you use your power on them too?"

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**In Vogue Advanced Weapons Center, Dallas Research Institute, Britannian Homeland.**

Nina snarled and trembled in rage as she stared at the one thing she hated most on earth.

The mask of Zero.

She glanced back at her calculations, a sadistic grin slowly growing on her face as she realized what an opportunity this was. "Tell Director Teller and General Le May that I wish to begin the testing phase as soon as possible, we'll see if those theories on utilizing Sakuradite to induce nuclear fusion are feasible." She informed her assistant.

The man nodded and headed off to one of the secure phones to do as ordered, Nina turning back to the screen and glaring at Zero.

_"For Princess Euphemia, I'll ensure nobody will _ever_ dare raise a hand against Britannia in anger again."_

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**UNKNOWN LOCATION, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

"In my time in hiding, I saw that the world had _not_ improved in my absence. Britannia churns ever more nations and peoples under her bootheel and seeks the fruits of further and unnecessary conquests while the other countries of the world either sit idly by and do nothing or toady up to them like the _sycophants_ they are! _No more_ shall I be burdened by this sorrow! This repeated abhorrent interplay war and discrimination, of conquest and suffering, of malicious deeds carried out by the strong, is at an **end**! If the world refuses to change on its own than I, Zero, shall _make_ it change! As many times as is necessary Zero shall be** resurrected** until the strong no longer oppress the weak!"= Zero declared as he clenched his fist.

"Take heed Britannia and all those who share similar ideals! For the fall of the despicable prison of Temple Tower is but the beginning of our new war, a symbol that the Knights of Justice have risen from the grave our enemies have attempted to consign us to! A divine punishment laid upon a blightful dungeon which held more people who disagreed with the status quo than true criminals! We shall fight Britannia and all who support this detestable state of affairs in the streets, in the fields, and on the beaches of their petty empires! But we shall never give up, we shall never surrender! In this war there can be only victory… Or **_death_**!"= He proclaimed passionately.

There was a pause to increase the tension before he continued. ="To this end I hereby declare the re-founding of the United States of Japan! A nation where race, ideology, and religion shall not matter! Where the only requirement to be a citizen is to do that which is just! As I declared to the world nearly two years ago, those with power. **Fear us!** Those without it. **Rally behind us!** The Black Knights shall once more stand in _judgment _of this world! So long as the _strong_ oppress the _weak_, my Rebellion will _continue_ to grow!"= Zero stated with a dramatic flourish of his cloak before Nemo cut the cameras on Shirley's que.

"Well, that went well." Kallen mused as Zero strode off the platform. "You think they bought the broadcast bouncing?" She inquired as Lelouch took off his mask, part of the new outfit Nemo had provided him after they reached their target location, he'd noted when putting it on that it was slightly bulkier and heavier than the previous costume, indicating it had been made with ballistic protection built in to protect against shrapnel and glancing hits from pistol caliber hollowpoint and ball rounds, along with some padding to reduce light impacts. Albeit it wasn't as good as it could've been due to a need to maintain the suit's profile.

The shrapnel part was at least welcome, the injuries he'd suffered at Tokyo when one of the Gawain's hadron cannons overloaded were admittedly avoidable, and the padding should at least reduce the severity of his injuries if Suzaku or anyone else ever managed to get the drop on him in Knightmare melee combat again like had occurred at Yokohama.

"They'll realize it eventually, but by the time they do, we'll be gone." He said with a smirk before turning to C2. "Are the engines ready?"

"Yeah, we're just about finished fueling and everyone's aboard as well, we still have some time to load additional supplies and ammunition for the ship's guns as well, I say they'll figure it out by tomorrow morning at the latest." The Reploid estimated with a shrug. "Brits were stupid to bring this thing back into full operational order anyways."

"Good, make sure the crew is ready to cast off on my orders, Geassed Marines and security personnel will keep any outsiders at bay while we prepare to depart before the tugs get us clear." Lelouch ordered as he put the mask back on and strode out of the room.

C2 muttered something about them being lucky that one of their Reploid members had downloaded the charts for the entire Delaware to serve as the Pilot otherwise they'd probably end up running aground.

"Where are you going?" Shirley asked as C2 fell into lockstep behind him.

="To the bridge."= He replied flatly.

Kallen raised an eyebrow. "Why, wouldn't the CIC be better?"

="It's simple Kallen, I want to scope out the best spots from which to see the looks on the Britannians' faces when the Black Knights steal the _Yamato_ back from under their very noses."= Zero chuckled as the door slammed shut behind them.

* * *

**AN: Before anyone asks, I never said the ****_Yamato_**** sank, only implied that it existed through ****_Shinano_****.**

**Or at least if I did it was such a throwaway thing I don't remember it and thus it can be safely considered retconned, either way here we are.**

**Also, it's a symbolic thing, Britannia holding it hostage in Pendragon as a reminder that Japan is under their heel and all that jazz because of Yamato being an old word for Japan itself and all in addition to being the name of the ethnic majority of the Japanese people.**

**By stealing it from Britannia, Lelouch is symbolically showing his renewed determination to free the Japanese people from captivity as Elevens.**

**The Su-11 is basically the Flanker, with the Su-11K being the carrier version of course.**

**The F-110 Wraith, in case that wasn't kinda obvious from parts of its description, is an F-16 expy mixed with some elements of the P-996 Lazer from GTA boasting the F-4 Phantom's original US Air Force number designation and a similar 'supernatural' name.**

**The fact Mage and Skeleton squadrons, both F-16 units in Ace Combat 7, fly them should reinforce the point.**

**The FV-6 is just the F-35B appearance-wise, mostly because I couldn't be assed to think of something more original at the time.**

**The EC-121 is physically just the E-3 Sentry, with some modifications to the design, including a JSTARs type canoe radar on the underside for added versatility.**

**And the Wyvern makes its grand debut alongside much of the Seventh Gen Britannian arsenal, a shame I didn't work on the interquel as much, or at least didn't have a coherent plant for it, as I'd made note of the X-02's development during a conversation between Odysseus and Schneizel in it.**

**As for the inevitable question of the two Nagases, I'd imagine that the implied Wardog one was born in Britannia and would very much like to distance herself from her Japanese heritage as any Britannian Nisei or Sansei or other descendant generation in the CG canon would.**

**It's entirely possible that the AC2/Assault Horizon X/AC4 Nagase was her aunt or cousin or something given the difference in age as well but I digress, that discussion isn't as relevant for this beyond determining lineage, since I'm not focusing on these side characters that much, it's more or less something I don't need to worry about that badly.**

**Oh, yeah, before I forget.**

**The Sun's surface rates in at 28 times Earth's gravity, while Jupiter tops out at a bit over twice Earth's and co-orbits with the sun due to this and its mass, C2 is actually, without realizing it, ****_minutely _****_altering Earth's gravitational pull, and thus the balance and orbits of every other body in the solar system I might add, _****by shifting gravity so intensely like this, even if only on a miniscule point. I don't know what the Mega Man 5 team was on, but it was clearly something.**

**Expect this to come back and bite everyone in the ass later, there's a reason why any movement of asteroids to Earth's orbit for mining would have to be extensively studied beforehand to address the most likely outcomes, which would be the alterations of the orbits of comets and trojan asteroids, possibly sending them on a collision course with the Earth when they normally would've missed. To say nothing of the possibility of someone screwing up and tossing the rock on a collision course with the only planet known to humans that houses complex life.**

**For every action, an equal and opposite reaction indeed.**

**Oh and C2's upgraded Search Soul is based on the GM Sniper II with a mix of both Search Men involved, the EXE version for some of the styling, with the Robot Master version for the camo and missile launcher options.**

**Ah, one last thing, I noticed recently that the Lancelot's and Guren's 'eye' colors mirror those of their pilots, Suzaku with green eyes, Kallen with blue.**


	3. Turn 3: Flight of the Yamato

**AN: Not Gonna Lie, a lot of the stuff being featured in X2 was supposed to have been set up for in the interlude. Which kinda threw me for a loop when I remembered I was referencing people, machines and events which were supposed to have been written beforehand.**

**Either way we're basically just YOLOing it and I'm gonna rework the interlude stuff into a bunch of omakes for sure (When is the big question because lol what is working on multiple projects simultaneously for me). Which'll solve the issue I had with building a narrative for it (Arguably the main thing holding me back from working on it).**

* * *

"_The theft of the _Yamato_ was one of the most audacious escapades Zero ever attempted. To navigate through the Britannian controlled Delaware River and out through a blockade at the mouth of the Delaware bay with a single ship… It would've been impossible but for a perfect alignment of circumstance, luck, incompetence on the part of the Britannians, and what many now argue to be a not insubstantial amount of inside help. Even still, it helped further solidify the myth of the 'Man of a Million Miracles'"_-Excerpt from _The Mask of Miracles: A History of Zero._

* * *

**June 6, 2019 ATB.**

**BASA Annex Field Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

The X-02B Wyvern came in for a steady landing, the aircraft touching down and slowing to a halt before taxiing to the apron under its own power.

Dr. Schroder narrowed his eyes as he and his staff watched the aircraft come to a halt at its assigned parking slot while the rest of Sol began to land one by one.

He strode over to Mihaly as the older man disembarked and removed his helmet. "I see the new suit is doing excellently."

"Croomy designed it well." He replied flatly.

"And the Wyvern?"

"No manned fighter currently in the skies can match it, especially after the vibration issue was solved… At least not those with typical pilots."

Schroder raised an eyebrow, Mihaly taking that as a signal to go on.

"There were four exceptional pilots flying today, two of them on our side, the other two… They were flying for the Black Knights."

"Did you shoot them down?" The Grunder Industries engineer asked dispassionately.

"No. I was forced to disengage when Temple Tower collapsed, they broke contact in the chaos."

Schroder froze. "Temple Tower collapsed…?" He breathed, having not been listening to radio or television transmissions.

"Brought down by Zero's forces." The aged man confirmed.

"I see, we'll have to advance the programs then…" Schroder mused softly as he turned and strode back into the hangar where two _immense_ fighter aircraft not following normal design patterns were being assembled, though both were missing a massive chunk of their upper forward sections, which resembled a docking slot of some kind. "May need to get additional resources from corporate for more units and wing sets, though I doubt BASA will balk at the funding this time..."

Mihaly simply narrowed his eyes at the sight of them, wary of his flight data being used for such purposes.

Even still. The sky was his kingdom, and he could not bear to leave it. Not for the title of Knight of Eight. Not for the Emperor. Not for Britannia.

Not even for his own granddaughters.

* * *

**June 7, 2019 ATB.**

**Chinese Embassy Perimeter, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Cornelia strode up to the perimeter Suzaku had established around the Embassy, Britannian troops staring down the Chinese Soldiers and Gun-Zhan Knightmare frames standing opposite them, guarding the embassy's gates and walls.

The Gun-Zhans were more than a step up from the Tieren, Longku and Gun-Ru that preceded them, a modification of the Royal Guard use Zhu-Yan better suited for mass production and field use. The machines lacked the ornamental designs of the Zhu-Yan and the prototype Shen-Hu, instead featuring a far simpler design for ease of maintenance and an armor layout and head design based on the typical Federation infantry combat gear. In addition to an olive drab scheme with little extraneous colors.

Suzaku was briefly reminded of the cancellation of plans to re-equip Britannia's own military with more sensible color schemes for its ground units in the wake of the Uprising, thus leading to the 'Imperial Blue' scheme being kept in service for the foreseeable future.

While they didn't look like much, in the hands of a veteran pilot they were still a match for the various standard production type EU Seventh Gens such as the German Mk 5E2 Panzer-Hornisse, France's CBA-09 Mistral, Italy's CDC-02 Bersaglieri, or the British Comet, in _addition_ to the Vincent Ward, the Australian M9 Gernsback or the Soviet IMBP-6 Kolyadka and the recently revealed IBMP-7 Smuglyanka. Though it was unknown if they were capable of doing the same with the still relatively unknown Akatsuki being used by the Black Knights, but the assumption was that those were of similar performance to other MP-type Seventh Gens.

Which was part of the reason why the Britannians were taking careful steps.

"Sir Kururugi." She acknowledged curtly.

"Your Highness." Suzaku replied in an equal fashion.

"Have they acknowledged his presence?"

"They're still sweeping the embassy for us, given that Zero hasn't requested political asylum his presence on Chinese soil is illegal." Suzaku noted with narrowed eyes. "A Colonel Qian is personally leading the search."

"Something doesn't add up though… Surely the staff would've noticed him by now." Cornelia observed warily.

"Unless he Geassed them to ignore his forces and not report them to us." Suzaku whispered conspiratorially to the Princess, whom nodded grimly.

Both were totally unaware that Lelouch had _counted_ on them focusing on his possible use of Geass in order for the plan to succeed.

"Sir Kururugi! Princess Cornelia!" Rivalz shouted as he ran over from the Lionel Ashford.

Suzaku turned to face his friend and comrade. "Rivalz? What's going on?" He inquired.

"It's Zero! The docks!" The young man tried to explain between breaths.

Suzaku's eyes narrowed before widening in realization. "Of course! How could we be so blind!" He gasped before turning to a subordinate. "Replace my energy filler ASAP! And order the navy to sortie anything they have that's combat capable! And make sure they load live ammo!"

"Yes, my lord!" The man acknowledged as he snapped to.

Many of his subordinates chafed at being ordered around by a number, but as a round only a handful of people could countermand his orders.

And for anyone lower than someone of his stature, disobedience, even by a royal, was tantamount to treason.

"What's going on!? What's Zero's plan!?" Cornelia snapped angrily as she wheeled about.

"He's stealing back something Britannia has lorded over the Japanese since the invasion." Suzaku muttered. "He's stealing the _Yamato_."

* * *

**June 7, 2017 ATB.**

**Black Knights Ship **_**Yamato**_**, Delaware River, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Lelouch chuckled as he watched the waterfront begin to pass behind them as the _Yamato _sailed down the Delaware river, making its way towards Delaware bay, and thus the open Atlantic. Whereupon Britannia, with much of her naval power in that ocean tied up or in port undergoing repairs and refitting thanks to the war with the EU, moving to the Pacific in preparation for the invasion of Siberia, or reeling from last year's global maverick uprising, would be unable to hunt the ship down effectively, if at all.

All that stood in her way for the moment was the Air Force and the Army, the extant coastal batteries and missile bases having been shattered by mavericks under Launch Octopus's command as part of the Uprising. Most of these facilities were still being rebuilt and were nowhere near operational again.

"We're making good speed Zero." A crewman reported as a hapless police boat scrambled to get out of the way. The diminutive craft almost being run over by the hijacked 70,000+ ton guided missile battleship, which let it flee unmolested. "No obstacles so far."

From the captain's chair, Zero nodded. ="Tell the CIC to keep an eye on the passive screens, and order the lookouts to stay sharp. We may not have very good coverage due to the proximity to shore preventing us from using our primary air search radars, but it's better than going unwarned. Also keep an eye on the sonar to make sure we don't run aground."=

"Aye sir!"

="Helm! Keep our course as outlined, but don't forget to anticipate the actions of other vessels we may encounter!"=

"Aye, aye!"

="Inform CIC to tell turrets A, B, and C to load the main guns with high explosive shells. All three, five, and six inch guns are to load with anti-aircraft rounds for air defense. Prep all 30mm chainguns, Terrier missile turrets, and 20mm CIWS mounts for close defense. Ready all anti-air VLS cells and have the Knightmares in the stern hangar ready for deployment on my command!"=

"Aye, aye!" The acting bosun acknowledged.

"CIC reports enemy VTOL gunships inbound."

="Quicker than I anticipated. Sound general quarters."=

* * *

Alarms blared throughout the _Yamato_ following the shrill call of the bosun's whistle, C2 scrambling out of her room as crewmen, a mix of Black Knights, retired or defected Britannian Navy and Coast Guard sailors who'd signed up with either the Black Knights or a neo-patriot group they associated with, or just whomever happened to be aboard, wasn't kicked off the ship and was following the instructions of the trained naval personnel and marines while instructions rang out of the 1MC.

["**General Quarters**, **General Quarters**. All hands man your battle stations. The direction of travel is up and forward on your starboard side, down and aft on your port side. Set material condition 'Zebra' throughout the ship. Inbound hostile aircraft."]

As the 1MC continued to rattle off, C2 rushed towards her station, a marine ready room near an exit to the weather deck, where she'd be waiting to repel possible boarders.

* * *

The lead VTOL gunship fired with its chaingun at the Yamato as the ship sailed down the Delaware, intended to be warning shots to entice the option to surrender.

The portside deck guns swiveled and elevated to retaliate, unleashing a torrent of 76mm and 127mm flak shells at the incoming gunships, proximity fused rounds blowing two of them out of the sky before they could respond.

The other six broke away and dove for the cover of ground clutter in an attempt to avoid being fired upon, unwilling to face what was now revealed to be a fully armed battleship with their totally inadequate weaponry.

* * *

**June 7, 2019 ATB.**

**Old Pendragon Airspace, Britannian Homeland.**

"IT'S ARMED WITH LIVE AMMO!?" Suzaku shouted furiously at some hapless naval officer on the other end of the line as the Lancelot Conquista soared over the streets of Old Pendragon.

["Y... Yes, my lord, a warehouse nearby was kept stocked with all sources of ammunition and the VLS cells were fully loaded with a standard missile mix of anti-ship Sledgehammers and anti-air and anti-radiation Talos missiles."]

"Why, in the name of Darwin, was a _museum ship_ moored with live missiles and operational systems to support its weapons aboard!?" The Knight of Seven barked. "Wasn't it being seaworthy for the annual Empire Day parade bad enough!?"

["T... The ship was made battle ready during the uprising in the event it was needed to evacuate His Majesty to a safer haven, the vessel was supposed to be drydocked at the Pendragon Naval Yards for their removal but due to the backlog and the lack of priority placed on it this never occurred."] The hapless man explained.

Suzaku rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And now Zero has a fully _armed_ and operational battleship… A battleship which the JMSDF had designed to have a defined qualitive advantage over its _peers_. While none of the ships in the Naval yard are even seaworthy let alone capable of combat… And the only ships within range capable of interfering with it are all far more lightly armed vessels since our submarines are otherwise committed." He grumbled.

["Unfortunately, my lord."] The man acknowledged. ["And I have worse news, just relayed to me by Her Eminence, Executrix Liath."]

"What could be worse?"

["The Emperor has _personally_ ordered you to cease your pursuit and hand it over to the Glinda Knights, the Navy, Repliforce, and the Air Force. General Upson will be in overall command."]

Suzaku narrowed his eyes, Repliforce was horrendously out of position, having been waiting to ambush the main body of the Black Knights over the Atlantic as they fled. And while the Glinda Knights would catch up in no time, they lacked the tactical acumen to deal with a literal battleship, being optimized for COIN operations and special assault tactics in reinforcement of existing operations.

None of their tactics were designed with Zero in mind either, despite him being the _reason_ for their founding, as he'd been presumed dead by most of the world.

Not to mention the fact Upson was a self-important _idiot_ who would attempt to hound all the glory at any cost.

Still, he stayed his tongue. If the Emperor deemed this necessary, he would obey.

"Acknowledged, my forces and I are returning to the East Palace." Suzaku replied somewhat bitterly as he turned the Lancelot around, his troops following suit immediately thereafter after receiving his orders.

* * *

**June 7, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights Ship **_**Yamato**_**, Delaware River, Britannian Homeland.**

C2 sighed as she stood watch from the weather deck platform atop the main 'mast' of the _Yamato_, using the targeting visor on the Search Soul to scan the skies above and around them.

She sighed before picking up a nearby circuit phone as the primary gunnery rangefinder's right side swiveled into her line of sight. "Bridge, tell the jokers controlling the primary rangefinder that I'll personally come in there and kick their asses if they don't stop jerking around with the controls because they're bored."

["Copy that watch, we'll let 'em know."] The mortified voice on the other end acknowledged as C2 sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Ugh I'd rather not be dealing with this crap while we're trying to escape Britannia itself, but when could I ever catch a lucky bre-" C2 muttered before a shell shot past her head, the Reploid yelping in surprise as she looked over her shoulder in the direction it came from and picked up the main circuit. "BRIDGE! BRITANNIAN MBT FORMATION ON THE BANK TO OUR STARBOARD! THEY'RE KEEPING PACE!" She barked into the handset.

[="Understood C2."=] Zero replied as the immense main gun turrets of the _Yamato_ began to swivel in unison with the rangefinders, traversing to fire their low-velocity 46cm coilguns.

"Is he fucking serious?" The Reploid whispered as the tanks fired off their smoke grenades and attempted to flee inland once they noticed the ship aiming at them with its _main battery guns_.

A shrill alarm tone blared and C2 immediately disabled her audio inputs as she braced herself against the ship.

Then all _nine_ of the main guns of the _Yamato_ fired, shaking the immense vessel with their thunder. The pressure waves of the electromagnetically propelled 18.1" shells exiting the barrels visibly distorted the air around them and the water next to the ship.

The entire road along that section of the riverbank erupted into an immense fireball as the HE shells impacted microseconds later.

C2 didn't see whether the tanks had gotten away, having been knocked off her feet despite her attempts to brace, but she doubted any survivors would be willing to try their luck again after _that_.

Turning her 'ears' back on, she let out a mumbled "Holy shit" as she watched the shattered landscape settle. "Uhh, was that necessary? We could've hit them with the 155s…" She mumbled over the circuit after picking it back up.

[="Sometimes a little shock and awe is preferable."=] Zero replied calmly.

"If you say so…" C2 sighed as she started to scan their surroundings again. "Man, I really need to start carrying something around for epic music, maybe some tracks with a lot of castanets and stuff." She mused idly as she continued looking about, trying to stem off boredom before it set in.

* * *

Sometime later, C2 was relieved from her watch. Allowing the Reploid some respite as she sat down in the dining quarters normally used by JMSDF command staff. Lelouch, Kallen, Nemo and Shirley also present.

"So, how long do you think we have?"

"SIGINT reports that the Glinda Knights, the Royal Navy, and Repliforce will apparently be establishing a cordon at the mouth of Delaware Bay, gives them room to maneuver, in addition to possibly hiding submarines in the area. They're not even bothering to hide their radio traffic." Shirley reported.

"Arrogance…" Lelouch mumbled as he rubbed his chin. "I'd've blocked the mouth of the river, easier to concentrate forces there, especially if I don't have the troops on hand. I can't believe either of them would be so foolish, even a _child_ could see that it's easier to block a narrow door than a wider one."

C2 shrugged. "Dunno why, perhaps Colonel or Marrybell aren't in command of the operation."

Lelouch shrugged before letting out a sigh. "I know two of you want to grill me about my actions, one is mostly indifferent, and the fourth…" He glanced warily at C2. "Wants to deck me at the very least. So why hold off?"

"I'd rather wait until we're actually safe before knocking your ass out." C2 noted as she fiddled with something in her hands.

"Alright, that's… What the hell are you holding?" Lelouch inquired as he saw what she was fiddling with.

"Kallen's bra." The Reploid admitted with a smirk, having swapped to the Magic Soul while nobody was looking.

There was a moment of confusion before everyone realized that none of them, barring Lelouch, had clothing beyond what they were already wearing.

Even Nemo was still in her bloodstained copy of the pilot suit that she had originally found in the one of the Gawain's stowage compartments.

"How the hell…?" Nemo began to ask, her eyes narrowing at the smug Reploid, who tossed the bra over to its flushed-red owner.

"A magician never reveals her secrets." She stated with a catlike grin on her face, knowing that her actions had successfully lightened the mood a bit and took the focus off Lelouch for the moment.

Lelouch simply closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Thank god Milly never knew of this." He muttered under his breath.

Shirley nodded in agreement, keeping a wary eye on C2.

"Well it's a good thing I don't wear bras." Nemo whispered softly as she reclined in her seat.

"Don't make me steal other things to spite you." The Reploid joked smarmily.

"I'll hit you."

"Kallen tried that once, she nearly broke her hand on my face. What with it being made of _metal_ and all." C2 pointed out.

"I never said with my _fist_." Nemo retorted with a smug grin.

Lelouch began to chuckle softly even as he resisted the tempting urge to facepalm. "At least you're getting along."

"We came to the mutual agreement that you're a dumbass." Nemo stated for the group.

Only Shirley looked somewhat apprehensive about that statement.

"Hmph. You're not entirely wrong there." He conceded. "And that makes me more thankful that nobody is witnessing this, lest they get the impression I have a four-person harem."

"Three-person, C2's technically married in all but legal terms." Kallen pointed out as she tried to discreetly put her bra back on.

Lelouch had a quizzical look on his face, even as he avoided looking directly at Kallen out of concern for her modesty, both at the total nonchalance to his statement and to the comment about C2, as the aforementioned Reploid looked away and whistled. "What…?"

"Reploids have an unusual phenomenon known as 'soul-bonding', it's when two DNA souls intermingle so thoroughly, they form a sort of bond not unlike quantum entanglement." Shirley stated before eeping as everyone gave her a look of puzzlement. "I looked it up." She admitted hastily.

"So, out of everyone here, that means I'm the only person who's _actually_ gotten laid." The Reploid noted with a toothy grin.

"Quit being so smug about it." Nemo retorted with a roll of eye eyes.

C2 shrugged. "Says the girl who routinely steals from Shirley's dresser." She snarked.

Shirley shot up angrily. "That was _you_!?" She yelled before the room devolved into arguing between her, Nemo, and Kallen. Lelouch sighed softly as he watched with disinterest before turning his head to look at C2, even though she was a machine he could still tell that from the look in her eyes that she was tired, drained from killing and death, and not just from this operation. Clearly she'd seen a lot of fighting and close calls over the course of the past year, more than anyone should have reasonably demanded from her.

Despite her power, she'd only been online for a scant three years. Nor had she been _built_ for battle, only with the intent to fight if _necessary_. Her design thus wasn't as powerful as those high-end Reploids that had been purpose built for warfare, and thus required armor packages to make up the difference in strength and energy output.

Though he vaguely remembered Rakshata making note of some oddities with her reactor core, about how it appeared to be limited.

Regardless. She was never intended for this. Any of this.

"_And yet… She still pushes forwards… I wouldn't have blamed her if she stayed out… But she came back. Did she realize that she was needed? Or is there a more selfish reasoning behind it?"_ He contemplated as he watched his other compatriots chatter amongst eachother like a pack of squabbling hens.

* * *

Sometime later, Lelouch strode down a corridor in his guise as Zero, heading back to the bridge as they approached the mouth of the Delaware, it having been a couple hours since the Britannians had last attempted to harass them.

Considering the drones and RB-57s shadowing them it was likely a self-centered and incompetent officer from the Air Force was to thank for him not being under constant attack at the moment.

Nemo and C2 stopped him, the former having changed to a spare crewwoman's uniform owing to the blood that had stained her pilot suit being disconcerting to their forces. "Lelouch, we need to talk."

He frowned and removed the mask. "What is it? If this is about my thoughts on Shirley in combat, I've accepted that there's nothing I can do to dissuade her."

"It's not that, we need to take extra precautions in the event Marrybell attempts to board the ship." The Reploid said calmly.

"Our typical precautions should be-"

"She has Geass." Nemo stated flatly, cutting him off.

Lelouch blanched as his face contorted in shock.

"It's true, I saw her Geass several neo-patriots during the Pendragon Insurgency last year. Her Geass is like yours except it totally strips someone's autonomy from them, reducing them to little more than puppets." C2 added grimly. "Yours at least left someone with _some_ semblance of initiative."

Lelouch groaned. "Wonderful, just absolutely _wonderful_… And she detests me because in her eyes, Zero is a terrorist."

"Pretty much, why are half your sisters psychotic anyways?" C2 asked with half-lidded eyes.

"You act like _I _know." He shot back as he put the mask back on and pushed his way past them, muttering something about getting Ohgi to hurry up.

When he was gone C2 turned to Nemo with a smirk on her face. "You totally wanted him to grab something didn't you?"

"Shut. Up."

"It annoys you, so no."

The immortal rolled her eyes and exhaled to try and calm down. "When did you become this smarmy?"

"I was always like this. I'm just more open about it now so I can use it as a pressure valve." The Reploid explained with a halfhearted shrug.

Nemo narrowed her eyes warily. "Pressure valve for what…?"

The Reploid seemed to visibly deflate in response, surprising Nemo.

C2's eyes flickered red briefly as she looked at where Lelouch had walked off to, her shoulders sagging suddenly. "You of all people should know 'what'." She muttered tiredly as she walked off, leaving Nemo behind to contemplate her words.

"No… I really don't…" The immortal mumbled to herself before following Lelouch.

* * *

**June 7, 2019 ATB.**

**Britannian missile battlecruiser HIMS **_**Guam**_**, Delaware Bay, Britannian Homeland.**

Colonel stood grim-faced on the bow of the _Alaska_-class guided missile battlecruiser _Guam_, the immense vessel's six forward 305mm cannons in their two three-gun turrets and angular superstructure gleaming in the light behind him.

He narrowed his eyes, straining his camera zoom to the maximum to try and spot the _Yamato_.

A fool's errand given that preening moron Upson had redeployed elements Jet Stingray's personal flotilla, Storm Owl's air division, the Britannian Navy, and the vessels of the Glinda Knights at the mouth of the _bay_ rather than the _river_.

No doubt the 'good general' wanted to have the air force claim the glory of sinking the enemy vessel and killing Zero. The Navy, despite the Crown Prince himself having commanded a battleship quite capably during his service tenure and its undisputed importance to controlling Britannia's vast empire, was still viewed by the other branches as a 'force of commoners' due to the disgrace at Trafalgar.

"Idiot." Colonel seethed, knowing full well that the Air Force didn't have the bomber and attack units on hand to definitively defeat the former pride of the JMSDF, what with the war with the EU going on, many squadrons being shuffled about for the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union, and many others being held in reserve to 'deter' China as part of a show plan or deployed on garrison and counter-insurgency duties in the various areas.

The fact they _still_ hadn't shown meant that Upson was probably frantically scrambling to get whatever he could scrape up airborne, which undoubtedly meant multiple Home Guard fighter squadrons with haphazardly loaded bombs.

If they even managed to get off the ground in time.

Furthering the nonsense were the idiotic orders the airships had received due to the General's distaste for Reploids, beyond seeing them as cannon fodder given how easy they were to produce compared to well-trained human personnel.

Another reason he detested the nobility, as a good majority of it seemed to view Reploids as inferior to human despite the patriotism and open loyalty Britannian ones showed.

Thus Storm Owl's detached flotilla, which could've proved **decisive** in corralling the fleeing ship from the air, was reduced to twelve destroyers and four cruisers scattered along a broken line from Ocean City to Atlantic City.

Sixteen ships in four four-vessel squadron arrangements to cover nearly a_ hundred _linear miles of territory, most of which wasn't even relevant in the _slightest_ to their objective.

Likewise, out of the three vessels the Glinda Knights had assigned to them, only the _Grandberry_, under Princess Marrybell's direct command, was part of the blockade proper, as Upson wasn't quite arrogant enough to piss off a Royal just yet, even if she was disgraced.

All because Upson was a glory hound out for himself.

The result was that Zero and his ship would blow right past them unless decisive action was taken by _someone_.

Thankfully the Navy hadn't obeyed his orders beyond providing lip service to them. While Jet Stingray's surface flotilla kept up the illusion of compliance to throw off Upson as long as possible.

He placed a hand on his saber and narrowed his eyes as he felt the ship's course change as it tilted going into the turn. No doubt the human commodore currently commanding the Naval taskforce had received word that the _Yamato_ was steaming through the bay at this moment and was moving to engage.

Already the two _Alaska_-class vessels, _Guam_ and _Cuba_, were forming a battle line, guns elevating and swiveling as they prepared to cross the T of the enemy vessel.

The duo of lean and fast warships was backed by four heavy guided missile cruisers, four light guided missile cruisers, twelve guided missile destroyers, and eight guided missile frigates.

He let a small smirk grace his features as he imagined the look on Upson's face when the self-important nobleman found out his orders were being ignored by many of his supposed subordinates. "A shame we don't have any carriers handy." Colonel mused as the wind whipped past his sharp features. "The bastard would never live it down if the Naval Air Service scored the kill."

* * *

**June 7, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights Ship **_**Yamato**_**, Delaware Bay, Britannian Homeland.**

C2 rushed to her station as the ship prepared for battle yet again, the limited downtime they had utterly vanished once a sizable Britannian flotilla had detected their approach.

Air cover seemed non-existent so far but Zero had ordered them to load anti-air shells for use against missiles anyways and ordered the ship to make a hard turn to starboard to provide maximum defensive coverage from its guns.

His caution proved to be well founded when the first waves started screaming in, fire belching from the battleship's deck as interceptor missiles roared into the sky from VLS cells to provide the first layer of defense.

Still, they couldn't fire fast enough, and their cells didn't have the capacity to endure repeated attacks.

That was where the second layer came in.

_ Yamato's_ 46cm main battery guns thundered, loosing a salvo of Type 3B San-Shiki kai flak shells which exploded in mid-air with deadly cones of shrapnel, wiping out many of the sea skimming weapons.

Unlike the old Type 3 special incendiary shells, the San-Shiki kais were true proximity fused flak shells, designed to release a torrent of shrapnel upon any target that sought to engage the battleship.

As such, the utility of the main guns was increased dramatically, and the shells would've offered substantial defense for Japanese flotillas against Britannian anti-ship missiles during the invasion.

Had _Yamato_ not been in port undergoing a refit at the time. Or had the radar specifics of the proximity fusing not been leaked to Britannia by an opportunistic Genbu Kururugi, negating the effectiveness of _Musashi_ and _Shinano_, the former of which was now resting on the bottom of the Pacific, while the latter had barely escaped with part of the Japanese imperial family aboard. Hence why the ship was even still afloat.

_Yamato_ meanwhile had been unceremoniously spared for the sole purpose of being taken as a war prize by some over ambitious nobleman to present to the Emperor.

The gamble had paid off and said man found himself enriched beyond his wildest dreams, even if Charles zi Britannia had barely given a shit.

Thus, there was karmic irony in the fact that the hijacked HIMS _Montana_ had obliterated his awarded beachfront estate with her twelve 16-inch guns during the Maverick Uprising before Zero, the Reploid Maverick Hunter rather Lelouch's alter-ego for obvious reasons, had singlehandedly retaken the battleship.

"They're still coming!" C2 reported as she glanced out a hatch.

The rapid-fire drumbeat of the 127mm, 76mm, and 155mm guns blazing away came next, more missiles being skewered out of the air by their proximity fused shells.

The 20mm CIWS and 30mm chainguns buzzed away, their chatter mixing together with that of the guns of the few Knightmares they had aboard, which threw up a barrage from their ranged weapons. In total, their last line of active defense.

Simultaneously, canisters shot up from fixed grenade launcher type dispensers attached to the deck of the ship, releasing clouds of dazzling chaffsmoke to try and throw off the radar seekers of the surviving missiles in conjunction with ECM.

Most of the salvo was thus evaded or destroyed this way.

Except for one missile that screamed towards the superstructure of the mighty warship.

And then a bolt of blue plasma speared through the body of the Britannian Sledgehammer missile, turning it into a fireball as its warhead and remaining fuel brewed up.

The targeting visor on the Search Soul slid up as C2 sighed in relief.

"All missiles down…"

[="Good work C2."=] Zero praised as she reclined to take a short breather.

Not even ten minutes later she was contacted again.

[="Radar has picked up more incoming."=]

"The missiles again…?" She groaned softly.

[="Worse, enemy naval vessels and airships are inbound. Stand by four counter boarding."=]

* * *

**Britannian missile battlecruiser HIMS **_**Guam**_**, Delaware Bay, Britannian Homeland.**

Colonel frowned as they closed, it was quite clear by now that the _Yamato_ had survived the salvo thrown at it.

The Reploid closed his eyes briefly. "You're certain the last one was shot down by somebody aboard the ship?" He inquired, mildly annoyed that the missiles had failed due to the fleet having been loaded in preparation of engaging the Black Knights air flotilla instead of a surface combatant, thus preventing a second salvo of that size from being launched.

["Yes sir. It appeared to be a buster shot of some kind."] A recon drone operator replied from the CIC.

The tall Reploid's eyes opened. "Very well then, inform the Glinda Knights I'm clearing a path for them.

And with that he vanished in a black and white burst of transerver energy.

* * *

**Black Knights Ship **_**Yamato**_**, Delaware Bay, Britannian Homeland.**

C2 scanned the skies, watching numerous Vincent Glindas, Spitfire Glindas, and Brighton Glindas, led by the Bradford, Lancelot Grail, Lancelot Trial, and the Zetland approach from the air.

Already the remaining SAMs were being expended on them, alongside salvos of flak shells which the oncoming Knightmares evaded with relative ease.

C2 dialed in on the Zetland, hoping to destroy the enemy's heavy assault unit before it could tear the ship apart with its hadron cannon, none of the Brightons were loaded with their typical railguns for some reason, hence her focus on that specific unit.

She got one shot off, frying the systems on its cannon and forcing the enemy Knightmare to retreat before an all too familiar alarm blared in her head as text scrolled across her field of vision, interrupting her chance at a second shot.

**[****TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING.****]**

**[****WARNING****]**

**[****TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING. TARGET APPROACHING.****]**

Rolling out of the way as a beam saber slashed through the air where her neck had been seconds ago, C2 switched to her normal mode and powered on her drills as she stared down Colonel, bolts of ruby red energy snapping from the emitters on her forearms and travelling up along the cone bits as they spun, waiting to be unleashed.

"Zero! Colonel's aboard the ship!" She tried to warn over her radio, only to get no reply from Lelouch. "Zero!?"

["Zero left the bridge shortly after he informed you about the Glinda Knights! Nobody knows where he went!"] Someone she didn't recognize replied, C2's eyes widening in shock.

"Abandoned again?" The Repliforce field commander snarked based on her body language and statements.

Something in her head clicked the _wrong_ way, C2's frown turning to a smirk as her eyes flashed red and stayed that color. "Heh, says you… Thinking about it, I never got the chance to kick Repliforce's shit in during the first rebellion." She chuckled dryly.

Colonel snorted as he waved his beam saber in a dramatic flourish, taking up a dueling stance. "You'll find your chances severely overestimated, _terrorist_." He sneered.

"I'll take being called a terrorist over a maverick any day!" C2 replied gleefully as she and Colonel stared eachother down, both waiting for the other to make the first move as the Glinda Knights waved off their initial runs while the _Yamato_ and the two Britannian battlecruisers closed to secondary range as part of Lelouch's plan.

Lelouch knew the old-guard officers couldn't resist an old-fashioned gun-duel, even if their ships were comparatively outmatched on an individual basis.

Of course, he hadn't counted on Colonel showing up personally. But that's what _she_ was for.

The energy sheaths crackled to life around C2's drills as she fired up her boosters and charged at Colonel, who deftly sidestepped her charge, the black and silver armored Reploid's emerald hair flowing forwards around her as she braked to avoid hitting the leg of the Guren, which was spraying gunfire into the air with its left arm and shoulder mounted chainguns.

The black and white armored Repliforce officer turned to face her as she boosted into the air and dove down on him.

He swiftly blocked the attack with his blade and used her airborne state to fling her into the side of A turret, the thick composite armor and steel easily taking the impact without denting.

C2 fired her apogee motors to help right herself, the Reploid chuckling manically. "Fucking finally! Someone who_ isn't_ Vile that can actually do more than be a speedbump when I really get going!" She giggled as she slide dashed at Colonel, who leapt into the air and landed atop B turret, easily dodging the attack.

Colonel narrowed his eyes at her, noting how lively she seemed and gauging her possible moves. _"Mental instability? Previous reports didn't indicate a hidden battle lust, though admittedly those reports were scarce due to her lack of a presence on the battlefield previously, and there was the damage she'd done to the Chinese. Given her theorized history and the possible damage she'd suffered it wouldn't be surprising she'd develop such problems."_ He mused, Colonel taking a guard stance as she suddenly propelled herself off the deck, having swapped the left arm drill out for her shield.

Colonel sighed and grabbed her by said shield, wheeling around and tossing C2 at the superstructure before jumping after her as the forward main guns of the _Yamato _fired their first ranging shots at the oncoming Britannian ships. The battlecruisers fired back with ranging shots of their own, shells splashing down on either side of the _Yamato_.

C2 kept up her attack as she and her opponent trailed towards the stern, Colonel deftly blocking each strike as it came, keeping a practiced eye on C2's movements.

"_Sloppy, absolutely sloppy, she attacks like an animal rather than a warrior when excited, relying on terrain to keep ahead of more skilled opponents."_ He noted dryly.

Guns thundered and strafing runs from the Glinda Knights impacted the deck around them as they proceeded, neither Reploid paying the shots much attention as they battled around the tertiary and quaternary turrets, which kept up a healthy rain of fire going out at the attackers.

C2 eventually was forced to jump down atop C turret, Colonel following her as they stared down, the turret swiveling 'over the shoulder' as they stood atop it, guns elevating and then depressing as they traversed.

Having had enough of the clashing of blades, C2 lunged at Colonel.

And suddenly found herself without a forearm.

The energy sheath around the drill vanished as the limb's connection to her reactor was suddenly severed, almost blood red coolant and lubricants spraying from half-cauterized lines before automatic cutoff valves sealed shut and cut the flow off.

Colonel stood there, saber nearly against the front of her neck as he narrowed his eyes.

"H… How…" She whispered as her mental processes came to a crashing halt, eyes wide and back to their normal gold color. Her shields still hovered at around fifty percent, Colonel having somehow pierced right through them.

"Why should I tell an opponent what the mistake that killed them was? Or what method I used no less?" He growled softly as he prepared to twitch the blade and remove her head.

["My apologies Colonel, but my subordinate isn't dying today."] A smug voice declared over an open channel as _something _burst from the water.

"Zero!" Colonel gasped as he took a step away from C2 just as the object that had just emerged became clear, a sleek almost beetle-like craft.

The aircraft quickly transformed into a Black and Gold Knightmare frame, its air glide system flaring to life and bringing it into a hover. ["Behold, the Shinkiro! The mirage that was birthed from the body of Gawain!"] Zero announced as the black and gold Knightmare's four eyes flashed red, the factsphere behind the lens plate on its forehead pulsing as it scanned its surroundings.

The Britannians wasted no time hammering it with firepower, only to have every shot impact a series of violet hexagonal energy barriers that sprang up around the Knightmare in response to individual incoming shots.

["Did you honestly think that shooting it down would be so easy?"] Zero chuckled as the chest cover for the Shinkiro's main cannon opened on command. The crystal-like emitter inside glowed an ominous violet as the prototype phase transition cannon, based on data from technical documents for the Magnus Hadron cannon that had been inadvertently stolen by C2 during her raid on the Imperial Palace, powered up.

["Now… _Disappear_!"] Zero commanded as it fired in scatter mode, violet beams lancing out across the Knightmare's forward arc and sweeping through the air via minute adjustments in the cannon's Gefjun field, the beams carving through the rank and file of the stunned Glinda Knights with abandon and forcing the Britannian warships to cease firing and activate their blaze luminous barriers lest they be cut to pieces as well.

Colonel scowled as he glared at C2 briefly before transervering out as he watched dozens of cockpit pods parachute back down to earth. As easily as he could end C2 right now, he didn't want to risk getting trapped if at all possible by transmission jamming preventing him from warping out by taking the extra second to do so.

C2 shakily grabbed her arm, which was trapped against hatch on the turret roof, and stood up as the _Ikaruga _and its escorts burst from the waves shortly thereafter, their complements of Akatasukis, Ronins, and Ryuuseis, led by Todoh's new Zangetsu, launching in rapid succession alongside a few of the fighter jets that had been brought back to combat ready status, forcing the Britannian Navy to withdraw rather than engage in a protracted battle against fresh enemy troops whom also had air superiority.

An admitted bluff since most of the Akatsukis and Ryuuseis had people with barely a few hours experience in the cockpit and would've been slaughtered had the Britannians pressed the attack.

Though the _Ikaruga's_ hadron guns would've probably won them the battle regardless.

C2 let out a discreet sigh of relief as she fell back down against C turret's roof and laid there while she watched the enemy line of battle steam off. "Fuck, that was close. He nearly got me…" She moaned as she came down from her 'battle high', briefly wondering what the hell was wrong with her for attacking a skilled duelist in such a manner. Even with her normal excitement... That was a bit _too _far for her comfort.

She'd have had an easier time trying to use her Air Soul to force him into the sea with significantly less energy expended, plus minimal damage.

Instead she tried to engage a skilled duelist at his own game like an absolute _idiot_.

"_Aw great__, reactivating my X Factor might've had some side-effects given how long that virus was in my head… Now instead of being clean of viral infection I'm fucking bipolar, wouldn't be surprised if the virus evolved and integrated itself into my personality coding out of self-preservation…"_ The Reploid thought as she sighed.

["Hey C2… Your arm's off?"] Shirley said nervously over the radio from the Mark II Kai as the Shinkiro landed on the _Yamato's_ helipad, its energy having been nearly expended by its use of the magnus hadron cannon and its absolute defense barrier.

"Yeah it is… By the way, write that down, I think somebody could use that as a gag line or something at some point. At least their air force was a no show…" The Reploid mused. "So… I'm just gonna… Take a quick nap…" C2 mumbled as she engaged sleep mode and just passed out atop the turret, mentally drained by her fight.

* * *

C2 felt her head shift as she laid in sleep mode, the Reploid mumbling as she powered back on.

"Fuck. It was a good dream too…" She grumbled as she looked up to see Nemo prodding her with a spork. "What the actual fuck are you doing?"

"Trying to make you think you're getting pecked apart by seagulls." The immortal stated with a shrug.

"I hate you so much sometimes."

"The feeling is mutual. Anyways, Zero wants to see you."

"Can we replace my arm first?" C2 inquired, waving the stump of about half her bicep around, some cooled metal trailing off it.

"We'll get to that when Rakshata arrives."

"You don't understand, I'm not going to be able to effectively use the stairs without two arms."

Nemo shrugged. "We don't have any spares. So deal with it." She informed the Reploid as she turned and walked into the superstructure.

C2 groaned in dismay before getting up and following after her.

* * *

Zero sighed as he, Urabe, Kallen, Nemo, and Shirley sat around a table.

C2 was still absent.

="Where's C2?"= He uttered finally, impatient and tapping his foot against the floor of the stateroom.

Urabe shrugged idly before they all glanced over at the door after hearing something slam against it and a muffled 'motherfucker' from the other side.

There was a loud clang as C2 opened it, strode in, closed the door behind her, whacked Nemo on the head with her severed arm and then sat down in an empty chair.

Lelouch sighed in exasperation and removed his mask. "Now that we're all here, some introductions are in order." He stated to Urabe.

The other man nodded. He'd been given the chance to back out several times by now, but had refused.

"My identity, Urabe, is one of many secrets you may become privy to in my inner circle."

Urabe sighed. "I'm guessing I can't tell the Colonel."

"For your safety and his, no. The less people who know about it the better, as I would prefer to keep such knowledge among those directly responsible for my protection and those whom I can trust." Lelouch pointed out before glancing offhandedly at C2, whom nodded, confirming that the room had been swept for bugs. "Would you rather I tell everyone in the command structure and have Tamaki blab about it to half our forces within the hour?"

Urabe shook his head, conceding that point. "And the fact you're barely out of your teenage years?"

Lelouch chuckled and stood up before turning around. "Tell me Urabe, have you ever heard the story of Lelouch vi Britannia, the 'Black Prince'?" He asked. "It's not a tale the Britannians will tell you."

Lelouch already knew he was going to have to repeat what he was about to say more than once.

Urabe frowned. "Colonel Todoh mentioned someone by that name once or twice, he stayed at the Kururugi residence on a political appointment."

Lelouch smirked as he walked over to the bar and poured himself a non-alcoholic sparkling cider before taking a sip. "The young prince's mother, Marianne vi Britannia, was the favored wife of the Emperor, making her Empress by default. When she was assassinated, and his younger sister rendered blind and crippled, he confronted his father regarding the lack of an investigation into the act, in front of the Imperial Court no less."

Urabe's eyes widened, aware that such an act of disrespect was political and social suicide in Britannia, even from a Prince.

"When the Emperor callously disregarded his inquest, the Prince verbally lashed out at the older man before the court, only to be soundly put in his place, disinherited and exiled to Japan as a political prisoner. It was here that he and his sister were introduced to the Kururugi clan, where they would spend the next year in their care, slowly gaining the trust and friendship of the Japanese Prime Minister's only son, the young boy's first _actual_ friend." He rattled off as he swirled his drink for dramatic effect.

Lelouch paused briefly to contemplate before continuing. "And then everything changed when Britannia invaded. During the opening salvos an airstrike was launched the Kururugi shrine, totally obliterating it and everyone inside. Only the three young children survived, left to make their way to safety through a _war zone_, wading through _fields_ of Japanese corpses and evading scatterings of hostile Japanese_ and_ Britannians all along the way. Eventually they reached a small JGSDF detachment whereupon the Kururugi boy was able to convince them to spare the two ex-royals with the knowledge their own country had rendered them expendable. Desensitized and furious, before he was taken away to stay in the protection of several associates of Doctor Cain until he was able to forge an identity for himself the young prince swore to his friend that he would do one, single, thing."

C2 and Nemo reclined in their seats, knowing what was coming.

"And what was that…?" Urabe asked, Kallen and Shirley, having not heard this story from Lelouch before, although knowing that he was referring to himself through it.

"I swore to Suzaku that day, that I would _obliterate_ Britannia." Lelouch finished calmly as he took another sip of his drink.

Urabe was absolutely floored as Lelouch's admission sunk in. "You mean…"

"Yes, I am Lelouch vi Britannia,_ former _Eleventh Prince of the Empire and formerly Seventeenth in line for the throne." He confirmed. "_And_ I am Zero, leader of the Black Knights and mortal enemy of everything Britannia _truly_ stands for. Do not misunderstand, I hid my identity for reasons of security. As much to protect my organization from fragmenting as to protect myself from the Emperor's prying eyes." He explained as he walked over to his chair and sat down, crossing a leg as he relaxed.

"I spent seven years in hiding. Many of them at Ashford academy where Shirley and Kallen were my fellow students, waiting for the chance to take my fight to Britannia. To tear down its twisted system of governance and culture and build a better nation from the ashes. And then one fateful day in Shinjuku, two critical tools for that objective fell right into my lap by my sheer misfortune of falling into the back of a truck Kallen had partaken in hijacking." He made no mention of Nemo, who deliberately sought him out regardless and thus would've possibly gave him Geass anyway had he not ended up in Shinjuku.

Urabe didn't need to know about Geass just yet anyways.

Urabe's eyes widened. "Two weapons…?"

"Yes, the Kozuki cell, which would form the core of the future Black Knights alongside the remnants of the Yamato Alliance. And C2, whom was inside that very truck and had been experimented on by my brother Clovis in a successful attempt to derive Reploid technology from her to enable Britannia to bypass Australia's constant hoarding of critical developments and thus destabilize a very fragile status quo."

Urabe began to put the remaining pieces together. "Then that means that girl you were so concerned about…"

"Was my younger sister Nunnally vi Britannia, yes. When I began all of this… I did it for her, to build her a gentler world where she wouldn't be at risk of being tossed aside by society for being blind and crippled… At first that was why I fought, now?" He glanced over the room.

"I let my priorities slip, while Nunnally is important to me I let her be the single guiding focus of my Rebellion, and she was used against me by Britannia. A Pluton detachment abducted her during the Battle of Tokyo, distracting me at a critical point in the battle. Which nearly proved fatal to us, as had I not been otherwise engaged I may have been able to engineer a sizable withdrawal in the face of enemy reinforcements instead of the utter rout that was apparently only mitigated due to Kusukabe seizing control over many of our retreating units when the chain of command collapsed. I have no excuses for what occurred that day." Lelouch admitted with a heavy sigh.

"That's the understatement of the century." C2 huffed derisively, earning her a glare from Lelouch.

"You're not much better yourself. You could just as easily have helped organize the retreat instead of abandoning everyone the moment things went south like a rat fleeing a sinking ship because you were furious at _me_." He pointed out, C2 deflating in response, well aware he was right. "On that note we'll talk about your engagement with Colonel later while I get Rakshata to prep a replacement for your upper right arm." He warned her before sighing as he eyed his glass, looking for imperfections in its form.

Urabe frowned as he reclined in his seat. "Well, now I understand _why_ you abandoned us Zero, us Swords would've gone after Todoh just the same if he'd been captured. But, if your sister was taken by Pluton to Britannia…"

Lelouch's scowl deepened as he saw what Urabe was getting at, the others glancing at eachother, noticing that something was off as well. "Indeed…"

* * *

"Where is she now?"

* * *

**June 7, 2019 ATB.**

**West Imperial Palace, New Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Liath strode into the throne room, where dozens of nobles and royals turned to face her as she entered, strode up to Charles and knelt before him.

"I take it that things went poorly…?" The Emperor mused softly, despite already knowing what was about to occur, having called the court into session rather late at night for a reason.

**="Yes, my liege… No doubt you are aware that Temple Tower has been destroyed by Zero, whom has absconded into the Atlantic with the **_**Yamato **_**due to General Upson's incompetence…"= **Liath confirmed, again for the theatrics.

Upson's fate had been decided the moment he decided to prioritize his personal glory over ensuring Zero would be captured.

Not that she cared either way, given that his death in the previous timeline had been at Todoh's hands without the Colonel ever realizing it.

"I see…" Charles replied, narrowing his eyes. "Bring him forward." Charles commanded.

Suzaku and two of his personal troops strode up with the handcuffed General, whose eyes were wide in horror as Liath stood and turned to face him a hand on the handle of her sword.

While Bradley would've been more suitable, C.C. had decided to insult the nobles in the process.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" The Emperor intoned dangerously.

"I was merely doing my duty in the name of Britannia! All I can do now is prostrate myself before you and issue my sincerest apologies for the failures of my subordinates!" The General replied in a panicked tone of voice, Suzaku's nose curling up in disgust at his attempt to save himself by deflecting the blame.

If Upson had concentrated his forces at the mouth of the river, Zero would be dead or back in Britannian hands now.

"I see... Is this your final plea?" The Emperor rumbled.

"Yes! It's their fault for disobeying my orders!" Upson shouted.

Charles nodded almost imperceptibly, C.C. grinning psychotically behind her mask as she let her alternate persona take over fully.

One of the few pleasures she took in her role this time around was _this_.

There was a flash and a glint of light on steel, and then Upson fell, a spray of blood from his jugular before he began to bleed out. The man's eyes glassed over as he quietly died.

C.C. briefly thanked providence that Upson had vacated his bowels on the trip over, and thus they'd been mostly empty when she'd executed him.

The court remained deathly silent as they watched Upson die before them, the imposing form of Liath standing over his body.

That the Executrix stood slightly taller than the average Britannian woman didn't hurt either, even if she didn't cut the same towering figure as Bismarck Waldstein.

**="Apology **_**accepted**_**, General Upson."= **Liath mocked as she sheathed her blade while a pair of Imperial Guard armsmen dragged his body off, several nobles whom were allied with the man shivering nervously.

"To the rest of you, let this be a lesson on failure, there are times when you cannot win no matter how much effort you put into a battle or other challenge due to simply being outmatched… And there are times when your arrogance or incompetence _causes_ you to fail despite the efforts of more _competent_ subordinate officers. Learn from Upson. Or _share_ his fate. That is our creed, _adapt _or _die_." The Emperor warned before dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

As they filed out, he turned to Liath, whom tilted her head up and knelt again, awaiting further orders. **="What is they bidding, my master?"=**

Charles's eye twitched, her finding those 'Star Wars' DVDs from the 20XX timeline in an old Wily Base on one of her 'trips' back before the Emblem of Blood had been the entire reason she'd built the persona of Liath the way she had.

It was mysterious, menacing, and to him, irksome.

Yet he entertained it all the same. It helped keep her _somewhat_ balanced, as well as someone who'd effectively lived over a_ thousand _years over _two_ separative lives could possibly be. That the Vincent Ward's head was now based on her helmet as a result, which was in turn based on said Knightmare from the _past_ timeline, was amusing to him due to the paradoxical nature of the entire scenario.

Similarly had been revelation that many basic technologies from 20XX such as telephones, televisions, and the such functioned virtually identically up until their digital age. At which point the differences in computer coding languages often rendered the ATB era equivalent incompatible.

"Instruct Kururugi that he is to escort the new Viceroy of Area 11 to her post in the coming weeks, we shall establish a date for the transfer after the force is organized. Make sure she is protected with all necessary force." Charles ordered, deciding to reign her in finally.

Liath crossed her arm over her chest in a Britannian salute. **="Your will be done, my liege."=** She replied without hesitation before turning and heading to where Suzaku and his armsmen were standing.

"_There's one thing Lelouch can't resist, no matter how hard he denies it… The chance to reclaim Nunnally."_ C.C. thought, a grin spreading across her face once more as she locked eyes with Kururugi through the visor of her helmet. "Nobody said Charles couldn't at least be a protective father for once either, a shame V.V.'s existence prevented him from actually acting like that openly." She whispered behind her mask. "Would've saved us a _lot_ of trouble."

At the least, the man wasn't entirely self-centered around himself and Marianne anymore, having thrown away Ragnarok and his guilt about not doing more for at least _some_ of his children given he'd mourned Euphie's inevitable suffering from C's world when the SAZ incident occurred.

And that change in him suited C.C. just fine, she absolutely _loathed_ false love anyways.

* * *

**AN: And here's another reason why C.C.'s persona of Liath scares the shit out of the nobility, and most everyone else.**

**Also the whole Star Wars DVD thing was basically meant to remind us that even as screwed up as she is right now, this is still the C.C. whom dryly taunts Lelouch about his failings because it mildly amuses her on top of trying to get him to think about it. Thus deliberately basing the persona of Liath on Darth Vader is well within character, especially since it's still somehow less over-the-top than Zero.**

**NGL this chapter is closer to form, but brainstorming was difficult because I had to make a plausible scenario for the Black Knights to escape without being a direct repeat of R2.**

**Though to be fair, Upson is the man who in canon, shot the engines out **_**on his own airship**_** trying to score brownie points because had to get bailed out by the rounds due to Lelouch being himself. This after somehow seizing command of a **_**NAVAL Carrier Taskforce**_** during the Wings of Tallyrand incident and losing dramatically hard, down to getting his ship ****captured**** by the enemy.**

**Why the fuck he got command and not an Admiral is anyone's guess, I blame the idiotic noble hierarchy of Britannia.**

**The same incident also saw the vast bulk of Britannia's home air defense force utterly destroyed by a handful of Somersets and a couple squadrons of stolen fighters (which means that Britannian pilot training is clearly lacking as supersonic capable Jets vastly outperform Knightmares, even Ninth Gen prototypes like the Guren SEITEN and Lancelot Albion, in most regimes of flight) despite the entire battle taking place off the eastern seaboard near Virginia and no mention of transit for west coast or inland units is made.**

**Probably because they needed a BS explanation for why nobody is using jets in R2 despite all the air battles.**

**Don't ask how that works or why the hell he wasn't outright executed for his incompetence, I put it down as Cornelia having fucked off to chase down the Geass Order meaning nobody is willing to actually pull the trigger on people who fuck up extremely hard. Naturally since Euphie is still alive, albeit in a coma, Cornelia's first priority is to protect her literally defenseless sibling rather than chasing down rumors.**

**Something which suits V.V. perfectly fine to be honest, the less people looking into what he and Charles are doing the better, or what he thinks they're doing given the current nature of Charles.**

**As for C2's seemingly inexplicable aggression towards Colonel, well, after going off the deep end during the interlude and being barely dragged back out of it by X, her already kinda Brock Sampsonish tendencies have been amplified due to her mental instability.**

**Oh and the Gun-Zhan is an original KMF, based roughly on the standard chassis derived from the Shen-Hu with a QBZ-95-1 LSW derived rifle and a QZL-87 based artillery gun because China.**


	4. Turn 4: Rest and Respite

**AN: Well chapter 4 here, more than a bit of revision to this one, particularly the opening blurb.**

**Not much to say here, so gonna respond to review(s). This one is honestly going to go on for a bit so fair warning.**

**Judeota: Charles is certainly a bit more invested in state affairs owing to Ragnarok being a no-go for him and C.C., especially after the Mavericks totally borked any attempt for them to try and direct a repeat of the canon R2 as much as possible, with the latter as Liath effectively implementing hardline policies at his direction to try and nudge more people into aiming towards reforming Britannia for the better. That said Charles is intending to play the dictator role for the benefit of Lelouch on this one, with C.C. being more or less his 'Vader' for the lack of a better term that isn't taken off of TvTropes.**

**As for their mentalities.**

**The former is... Well about as well off as someone who basically watched their entire life's work to achieve a world without lies go up in flames after it backfired horrifically and the _latter_ is so mentally scarred from the utter failure of Ragnarok, learning that the one person alive who was actively trying to change her perspective on life had bit the bullet in a freak twist of fate _and_ being forced to live her utterly hellish six-hundred year life a_ second time_, that she's not even really what anyone could consider remotely sane.**

**C.C. was horrendously screwed up in _canon_ (to the point that she just wanted her seemingly eternal suffering to end, a line of plot that's brought up repeatedly throughout the show, to the point that it's very heavily implied that even though C.C. cared about Mao she did the very same thing to Mao that was done to her when she herself was a contractor, manipulated him into making his Geass runaway until the only way out was to acquire a code, Mao however didn't bite due to his obsession.), so much so that her issues were heavily _downplayed_ in the series because there's a limit to how depressing someone can make a prime-time TV show realistically without it hitting too hard in places. It's even somewhat implied at the tail end of R1 that she's committed and/or contemplated suicide on more than one occasion, whether sacrificially or for other reasons is unknown because of her code making it impermanent.**

**Naturally, _mortal_ humans like we can't even comprehend how immeasurably screwed up C.C. is, especially given that the nun whose code she acquired wanted death so much and she may have lived for only a fraction of that time. Lelouch came somewhat closer than anyone in the show, but even he barely scratched the surface of what was wrong with her outside her desire for genuine affection. Much in the same way everyone in CG has masks, C.C. has many of her own to hide her trauma from others. Masks only her contractors have ever been able to peer past. In that sense Liath is just an extension of this.**

**Remember that the human mind's natural defense mechanism is to compartmentalize, isolate and deny information, disassociate, or fragment in response to trauma, one of the possible results of severe PTSD actually being disassociative identity disorder (still commonly known as split personality disorder due to popculture despite the name being changed in '94, and which C.C. doesn't quite have due to being able to recognize her other identity and its actions as her own). An extreme example of this in other fiction being what occured to the Alpha AI in Red versus Blue, which literally _shunted_ parts of its own mind off into their own AI fragments to protect itself from the sheer mental trauma of the simulations Project Freelancer was making it run until Alpha was just a pale shadow of what it used to be.**

**It's really something that requires some understanding of psychology to really figure out and make sense of given how complex the human mind and anything heavily derived from it is.**

**Long story short, everyone in the main cast of CG is fucked up in the head as a result of their experiences before and during the show, with C.C. being the worst of the lot for obvious reasons and Kallen being the most well-adjusted of the lot unless one considers Nunnally as a main rather than a supporting character.**

**And it's certainly no different here, albeit with some changes to the level of how screwed up any given character is.**

**On the subject of Nemo, the details of Ragnarok, and V.V., yeah I'm keeping that stuff close at hand.**

* * *

_"Under most circumstances, Reploids do not normally ingest food beyond a need to replenish their supply of basic self-repair nanites unless damage has been routinely suffered. This is due to the fact that unless specially coded nanites are utilized to make 'food', typical Reploids cannot 'taste' anything. Some have bemoaned the lack of this trait, notably the infamous Maverick known as Vile, whom reportedly said once to Mega Man X that a normal first-gen Reploid was unable to tell the difference between high grade bourbon whisky and muddy water from taste alone. On the subject of X, it is noteworthy that he and his bondmate appear to be the only Reploids originally built with tastebud equivalents, enabling them to perform a surprisingly accurate simulation of a typical human's sense of taste. This feature is still quite elusive, as only a handful of second gen units built after the Zero Reqiuem have this ability, a testament to the engineering and programming skills of Doctors Light and Lalinde."_-Excerpt from _Filling in the Uncanny Valley: A chronology of the ongoing humanization of Reploids._

* * *

**June 9, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights Battleship ****_Yamato_****, en-route to rendezvous with ****_Kasagi_**** battlegroup, Atlantic Ocean.**

Lelouch hummed idly to himself as he calculated their estimated time at sea until they reached the rendezvous off the Britannian sub-colony of Liberia, which wasn't even listed under the Area system due to its indirect connection to the Crown, in the Admiral's at-sea quarters aboard the _Yamato_.

"Calculate for fuel usage at battle speed… Round the figure to get a rough estimate and account for fuel contamination due to battle damage…" He mumbled as he looked at the numbers.

"_This is bad… We'll run out of fuel before we reach the rendezvous unless we can resupply en-route…"_

_Yamato's _limited unrefueled range compared to most Britannian vessels, a direct result of Japan's defensive posture, did not help in the least.

Her immense diesel engines could get the ship out to 8,400 nautical miles at twenty knots, _Shinano_ could sail much farther but she'd been refit three years ago with more efficient engines at significant cost to the JLF, even still it was a notable improvement over the older steam turbines used by her first Pacific War era counterpart.

But they'd already burned a significant portion of their fuel in the sprint to get away from the Britannian mainland.

Combined with several shell hits they taken to the unarmored bow and stern causing saltwater contamination in two of the fuel tanks. Which itself was on top of the damage the rest of the ship suffered, particularly the damaged to the various radars rendering it combat incapable as a result beyond very basic self defense or firing its main cannons. This reduced their cruising range drastically due to a combination of fuel loss and drag while also making them far more vulnerable to attack. More worryingly, as far as he knew they had no tankers within range to resupply them unless Hiryuu anticipated such concerns. Which was possible.

But this discounted the chances that the Britannian Navy may be pursuing them still, he'd heard rumors of their experimenting with a new type of powerplant that allowed increased a ship's range to global proportions _without_ refueling for an unknown period of time. With at least one carrier, a few cruisers and destroyers, a battleship, some support ships, and a couple submarines being built in sequence to test this technology in a practical setting. Some of these vessels were already undergoing their shakedown cruises to boot.

No doubt the work of Schneizel's In Vogue branch of Camelot.

There was a knock at his door.

"Who is it?" He asked without looking away from his work.

"We need to talk." Came C2's stern voice from the other side.

"Enter."

The Reploid opened the door, strode inside, and closed the door behind her, standing in front of it as Lelouch turned to face her. "Well, get on with it."

"I should honestly beat the shit out of you over everything you've done… But it's not worth it no matter how satisfying it'd be since in the end, like we've said before, I'm no better than you are."

Lelouch snorted as a smirk blossomed on his face. "Anything else?"

"You're an asshole."

"You always have to try and get the last word in, don't you?" He mused as he rested his chin on the side of one of his hands. "Anyways, about your engagement with Colonel, what exactly was that? If I hadn't been trying to get the Shinkiro at the time, you'd have been killed."

C2 looked down at her feet. "It's just… I tend to get overly… _Eager_ when I don't cut loose in a while…" She admitted, a half truth given that she wasn't quite comfortable with talking about her own mental issues with Lelouch, at least not yet.

"Well get a handle on your bloodlust, I need you _alive_. Unlike Nemo you _can_ die, and I'm not interested in trying to play necromancer with your DNA soul or parts if you bite the dust." He admonished her with a glare.

C2 clicked her tongue. "I'll work on it, I can't make any promises though. Anyways, how're we doing on fuel?"

"To put it in your words, 'we're screwed'."

C2 winced. "That bad?"

"Not even the half of it." Lelouch sighed as he gestured at his calculations. "We'll need to change course and get someone to refuel us and help perform repairs otherwise we'll need to find a way to run tow and power lines from the Ikaruga before reserve battery power fails and everyone ends up dying of dehydration, leaving you and the other Reploids aboard adrift at sea on a ship full of corpses."

"You do realize you could just fly us up to the Ikaruga, transfer additional supplies over and leave someone else in charge of the _Yamato_ right?" She pointed out.

Lelouch almost facepalmed as he realized how obvious that had been in hindsight. "Of fucking course…" He whispered to himself.

"You're really off your game you know that?"

"Give me a break, it's been a while and I'm trying to sort out my memories at the same time."

"Welcome to my world… Anyways, how exactly did you get aboard the Shinkiro when it was _underwater_?" C2 asked, trying and failing to cross her arms on impulse owing to a lack of a right arm.

"A magician never reveals his secrets." Lelouch snarked as he crossed his legs and reclined in his chair.

She rolled her eyes. "Har har har. I get it, you're not telling anyone because you probably nearly drowned in the process."

Lelouch's rolled his eyes. "It was following our wake on autopilot after we entered the bay. That low in the water, and with our props churning up enough noise and foam, it was impossible for it to get noticed by either air or sonar." He explained. "I simply had it pull up close to the ship and then jumped aboard from the starboard boat hangar's open deck."

"It's submersible too? How well does that work?"

"About as well as you'd expect given the cockpit had several leaks in it due to improper sealing, that and the controls apparently reset from the specifications Nemo had them put in because of the autopilot. All in all we're lucky that the systems didn't fry themselves trying to fire the phase transition gun. I'm going to have a talk with Rakshata about rectifying that later."

She shrugged.

He sighed before speaking up. "Back on topic. You've certainly made a name for yourself in the interim though, as the 'Banshee of Pendragon' you've practically become the Black Knights' equivalent to Liath. Even Luciano Bradley is supposedly terrified of you according to rumors." He noted with some mild pleasure at the thought of the 'Vampire of Britannia' shitting bricks at the sight of a pissed off C2. "Did you find out anything about Nunnally while you were in Pendragon? Or any real answers about my mother?" He asked, still not trusting Liath's words at face value.

The woman had too much to hide for him to even consider it.

C2 shook her head, before a thoughtful look crossed her face. "No, nothing I could find. As for Nunnally, whatever it is isn't psychosomatic or anything apparently. But I did realize something in the interim during a quiet moment."

"And what would that be?"

"Everyone says Nunnally's blind right?"

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "Yes, she can't see because her eyes won't open."

"I looked it up on a whim, and as far as I can tell the only way this occurs is due to muscle dysfunction when the eyes are closed for lengthy periods of time, but even then it shouldn't be impossible to open them and this is usually resolved manually. My question is, did anyone ever attempt to _force_ Nunnally's eyes open? Because normally that solves such an issue."

Lelouch felt a rush of anger as he realized what she was saying, his body trembling in rage now. Lelouch snarled as he got up and suddenly tossed his chair aside in a violent rage. "THAT BASTARD! HE USED HIS GEASS ON NUNNALLY DIDN'T HE! I'LL _KILL_ HIM!" Lelouch almost _screamed_ before C2 clamped her hand over his mouth in an attempt to restrain him.

"Shut it dumbass." She hissed. "We'll be lucky if nobody heard that over the sound of the ship! Listen, I'm just as pissed off about this as you are, but you going ballistic about it helps nobody."

She let Lelouch seethe for a bit before releasing him. "You calmer now?"

He nodded.

The Reploid smirked. "Good, now before we set up the plans for this ship to meet with Hiryuu's taskforce. I need to address you totally blowing off your troops' concerns at Tokyo because I already got mine for my part in that debacle."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to ask a question about what she meant by 'address' when she backhanded him across the face.

* * *

**June 9, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights Airship ****_Ikaruga_****, over the South Atlantic.**

Rakshata sighed as she installed the new bicep onto C2's arm. "There, now just reattach your forearm and it should be good as new."

"Thanks for the hand." C2 snorted as she picked up her forearm and plugged it in, alerts popping across her FOV to confirm it was linked.

"Dad jokes aren't your forte." The Indian woman noted with some light annoyance.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." C2 mumbled as she hopped off the workbench and tested her arm and hand to ensure everything had connected and was working properly. "So, if anything happens, I come see you right?"

"Of course."

C2 turned and walked out of the room, taking the elevator to an upper deck before heading down the hallway towards the officer's quarters, striding up to Ohgi's room and knocking on the door.

She just needed to inform Ohgi about a simple thing since Lelouch had already given her permission to take a leave of absence when they handed over the _Yamato_ to a relief crew.

It turned out that Hiryuu had indeed expected the ship's range to be diminished and positioned a supply vessel and an escorting frigate within easy refueling range of the battleship.

The irony was that the initial game plan had anticipated Zero having them steal the _Yamato _as a contingency anyways. Everyone at the top, aside from Kallen being utterly in the dark again, was kinda inured to his utterly psychotic and flashy plans at this point. Although at it wasn't expected at all to succeed.

"Enter." Ohgi replied.

C2 strode inside, much to Ohgi's surprise.

"C2! Uh, what're you doing here?!" He yelped as he shot to his feet, having been inspecting his new service uniform, which included a trench coat.

"I'm simply informing you I'm going to take a brief leave of absence to visit my er… Significant other… Zero has already given authorization, but since he's overworked at the moment I'm giving you advance notice."

The Japanese man raised an eyebrow. "Significant other?"

"It's… Complicated. Shirley can explain it to you better than I can."

Ohgi nodded, remembering Chigusa… Er... Viletta he supposed, briefly. "Alright, I'll be sure to notify the appropriate staff that you won't be present for a time."

C2 nodded and walked out to go gather some clothing before she would take the transerver to Arcadia City, where X had his personal residence, leaving Ohgi to scratch his head as he turned and picked out a shirt. "Zero's got us acting less like an insurgency and more like an army now…"

While he dreaded the slowly decreasing sense of close familiarity, he supposed it was inevitable, the Black Knights had to grow in order to defeat Britannia, and some things needed to be sacrificed to accommodate that.

He just hoped it didn't cost them anything irreplaceable in the process, they'd been lucky that their previous transition to a larger organization had been pretty smooth, this, this was different, old blood stuck dealing with new people who had different ways of doing things and the recently freed were thrust into the mess with no acclamation time.

There would undoubtedly be a culture clash that they would have to deal with soon, the ex-military, the former insurgents, and the new guard would undoubtedly begin to start complaining about how the other groups do things, complaints which Ohgi did not look forward to addressing in the slightest.

"Everything keeps getting more complicated… Doesn't it?" He whispered to himself. "It was a lot easier when we were just fighting to free Japan from Britannia... Zero _has_ to be aiming bigger this time."

Well, he had a meeting to get to.

* * *

Lelouch sighed as he called a meeting of his leading ranking officers to order, barring C2, who'd requested a leave of absence to see X and was thus under radio silence to avoid tipping anyone off, everyone important was present or tapping in via conference calls. Or in the case of the two remaining Kyoto members, holoprojections not unlike those used by the Britannian elite.

As an aside, before C2 left she also told him to get more sleep or she'd make him _pass out_ to do so.

He preferred to _not_ suffer unnecessary brain damage because C2 got carried away in enforcing her threats.

="Now that we are assembled, I suppose a debrief would be in order. Technical documents can be ignored for the moment, as can force strength and equipment stockpile numbers, those would best be saved for later."=

Everyone nodded in agreement except Tamaki, who scowled, with Ohgi speaking for the group. "What exactly happened after the retreat?"

"Hey, wait a minute! What about Tokyo!" Tamaki interrupted.

Kallen and Shirley glanced at eachother and winced while Urabe stayed his tongue. Even before knowing Zero's identity he'd kept his fair share of Todoh's secrets from the rest of the JLF and even the other Swords, having served directly under him prior to and during the invasion.

Chiba's eyes narrowed. "Though his interruption was unwarranted and crass. Tamaki does have a point. While we're grateful for your leadership in helping us escape, you can't exactly expect trust after you abandoned us nearly two years ago."

Zero hummed thoughtfully. ="You are correct. I cannot, but neither can you afford to lose me at this critical juncture, I shall explain myself in due time but this meeting is neither the time nor place to do so."=

Todoh nodded grimly, wanting to disagree but finding no valid reason to. "We'll be holding you to that. Now back to the subject at hand, the retreat."

["It was _hell_."] Kusukabe finally stated. ["We were lucky the Britannian Navy and Air Force were distracted by the Chinese and Soviets while also maintaining a vigil over the cities, otherwise we'd have been utterly annihilated trying to escape. It got worse when we finally reached India. Many of our surviving troops who weren't ex-military, part of Hiryuu's forces, defectors from Britannia or China, or hardcore loyalists deserted, stealing much of our equipment in the process. We lost most of our gear and remaining service model Knightmares overnight in addition to the equipment left on the shores of Japan, necessitating a painful rebuilding process that was only possible thanks to Lady Kaguya's and Lord Kubouin's overseas assets financing this."]

Zero nodded appreciatively at the two remaining Kyoto house members, their holoprojections nodding back.

Hiryuu snorted derisively. "That's the understatement of the century. The only group that was remotely combat capable was the old remnants of the JMSDF. And we'd already expended much of our ammo and many of our aircraft." She huffed.

["And without your fleet and their efforts the retreat would've been impossible either way."] Kusukabe noted grimly.

Lelouch winced, an action hidden by his mask. It had been out of pride and anger, particularly at Euphemia, that Hiryuu's taskforce had been so close to Japan when everything hit the fan. He wasn't nearly self-absorbed enough to think they hadn't simply gotten lucky she'd been there.

"Morale was almost nonexistent as well; it could've gotten worse since we nearly lost Shirley and Kallen to an OSI kill force in Mumbai." Urabe added. "Had it not been for Nemo blowing up a Knightmare frame with her old Gekka's wave surger and inadvertently alerting the Chinese garrison, forcing the OSI units to withdraw due to sheer weight of numbers and local air superiority, they would've been goners."

Lelouch felt a chill run through his spine at that statement as he glanced over at where the blonde immortal stood in the corner of the room. ="What about afterwards?"=

"Well... We completed the Guren Mark II Kai, which was assigned to miss Fenette after she completed her advanced Knightmare training course. C2 was rather helpful in carrying around parts for that after her little fiasco in Manila went down, partly to pay off her repairs and lodging after that nasty battering she got from those Irregular Reploids." Rakshata mused as she tapped her lower lip. "And we began recruiting from a variety of diaspora elements who were viewed as sub-par by Peace Mark, Kusukabe proved vital in getting them into fighting shape. I dare say that we got the better end of the deal, especially after Peace Mark was near totally wiped out by the Mavericks during the Uprising after getting caught in the open."

She paused before remembering something. "Oh right, I managed to complete the prototypes for our new mid and high-end C line Reploids before moving on to production, and fronted C2 in an underground fighting ring since, you have to admit it, she was absolutely horrendous in one on one combat, especially without her 'special' weapons. We recruited Metal Beetle, or Metabee as he prefers, through that ring as well."

"She always did strike me as more of a crowd control element than a scalpel against high strength assets due to her recklessness." Chiba noted as she enhanced a glance with Asahina. "The fact that Colonel almost downed her with such ease recently is a critical mark against her skills."

Zero nodded in agreement. ="Indeed, I'll have Rokusho work on her swordplay and other one-on-one close combat skills if possible when she returns. What else needs to be said?"=

Diethard spoke up next, nodding at Andrew Stadtfeld's monitor to begin his story. ["Well, in mid-January, a week or so prior to the beginning of the Maverick Uprising, our agents intercepted word that members of the Stadtfeld Family were calling Andrew Stadtfeld back to the homeland for a 'get together' of sorts for the lack of a better word. I read between the lines and realized they planned to have him killed discreetly as he was returning on a private airliner with no public witnesses, guarded by members of the same private security contractor from which the mercs who got mulched by C2 during the Haneda Airport raid last year were drawn. Naturally I contacted the most qualified individual to handle this off the books."] He stated over the video-phone call.

="C2."= Zero observed.

["Indeed. To make a long story short, she raided the prison ward where Ms Kozuki was being kept, hijacked the aircraft that would transport Lord Stadtfeld to Britannia, killed the assassins which constituted the _entire _crew of the aircraft, evaded the Britannian Naval Air Service, and then ditched the plane off the coast of the Britannian fortress enclave of Singapore. Whereupon they were picked up by one of Marty's submarines, the I-19, and delivered to a rendezvous point off Mumbai. After which the two were reunited with their estranged daughter and Mr Stadtfeld took Miss Fenette's position as head of logistics."]

Kallen flushed a bit red while her father simply sighed in exasperation at the oversimplification of the affair, which had been almost entirely the result of C2 'winging it' after realizing she had next to no idea on how to enact such a rescue in the first place.

["This was the last notable action we were involved in before the Uprising, during it we were trying to defend the locals after sections of the Chinese garrison abandoned several cities under the orders of some self-important generals. It more or less turned into a massive versus match of whack a mole with the mavs that left the slums of Chennai and Mumbai in ruins before the Maverick Hunters and the Chinese Army managed to restore order. Hell, each day seems to run into the next when you're stuck in an almost incessant streak of urban battles against seemingly unstoppable enemy forces with a scattered helping of civilian volunteers, panicked gangbangers, overmatched Police, out of their depth crime syndicates, isolated survivors from local Maverick Hunter detachments, trapped foreign spec-ops teams, and hapless Chinese soldiers who got left behind as your 'allies'."] Kusukabe noted grimly.

"The attacks in India really only petered out after C2 and the Maverick Hunter known as X knocked out Flame Mammoth in his hijacked weapons plant in Zilkhstan, which was constantly shipping fresh armaments and troops to the frontlines at rates we couldn't hope to match." Shirley added. "Even with Marty's pirates raiding Maverick controlled cargo ships they still had land and air routes to pour troops in through.

Kallen growled under her breath. "And even now nobody knows who was in charge of the uprising that caused that many Reploids, including at least eight high ranking Maverick Hunters, to try and genocide humanity and generally any Reploids who didn't agree with their goals. The official line is it was Vile, but C2 has incessantly stated that he's not leadership material whenever it's brought up."

Lelouch narrowed his eyes behind his mask, he was aware of Vile's reputation as well. The Reploid was muscle and guns, not leadership material.

Which concerned him because _someone_ had clearly been issuing orders to the Mavericks.

["Back on topic, we were still licking our wounds when a sizable Pluton force came after our HQ late last year."] Diethard groused angrily. ["Had C2 not decided to come back and save our hides after her stint in Europa…"]

He left the remainder unsaid.

Todoh's perpetual scowl deepened as Zero spoke up again. ="I assume that you spent much of your time after that rebuilding."=

["Not just rebuilding but _building up_."] Kusukabe corrected. ["The _Ikaruga _was undergoing constant fiddling in a drydock near Bhutan until she performed her final shakedown cruise three months ago."]

"It's amazingly easy to build and operate large factories, drydocks, training facilities, and airship docks under front names when the local officials and secret police detachments are so corrupt they'll even bite the Eunuch's hands and look the other way regarding us if it means they get paid more." Rakshata chuckled as she fiddled with her pipe.

="Typical of such filth."= Zero scoffed harshly. ="Is there anything else of note?"=

"Not really." Nemo said as she finally spoke, deciding to let C2 talk to Lelouch later about what she'd learned about herself and Doctor Lalinde over the course of the previous year.

That was a more private matter anyways.

="Very well then, our next matter on the agenda will be regarding weapons development during the interim period. Rakshata, you may begin."= Zero said as the Indian woman smirked and pulled out a remote control for a projector.

* * *

**June 9, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**Downtown Arcadia City, Australia.**

X sighed as he tapped his foot in his civilian mode, waiting for C2 to appear like she said she would.

A pair of hands promptly covered his eyes, X nearly jumping in fright.

"Oh it's just me, don't be such a big baby about it!" A familiar voice giggled as C2 promptly moved her hands down to his waist. "Nice jacket by the way, makes you look kinda like Elvis before he went into the Royal Army. Though you don't have the hair to go with it."

X rolled his eyes. "Hah hah." He scoffed with a smile on his face as she let him go. X turning to face her.

"In all seriousness though, you look great."

X eyed her shorts and tank top, a _very _short sleeved hoodie with an open zipper doing little to cover her cleavage, noting that she'd forgone her body glove again, which also exposed the seam lines on her arms and torso, as well as the grey rotation joints on her outer shoulders. "I see you're cutting loose."

"Well I would've worn jeans and a more covering sweatshirt, but my bracers and greaves don't exactly become compact. I guess that's the price we pay for battle performance. That or to look less unnerving to humans." She said with a half-shrug, suitcase shifting as she did so, her bulky and verdant colored forearm and lower leg and foot plating still visible due to design compromises that Doctor Lalinde had made to get maximum performance out of C2.

Design compromises Doctor Light had also made, as according to the data C2 had recovered unlike Rock and Tempo his and C2's respective civilian forms had been designed second, much like on Blues. Hence why their elder siblings from which they were primarily derived ironically looked more human than they did. Though as C2 mentioned, part of that had likely been intentional to avoid them falling into the uncanny valley by making them look more robotic.

On the other hand, her head antenna, which were quite sensitive communications and sensor arrays, were made smaller and more compact as they weren't needed beyond aesthetics in her civilian form.

X smirked at her as he wrapped an arm around her waist while C2 twirled an emerald bang. "Well, you look beautiful."

"You'd say that even if I was covered in industrial lubricant and my plating was charred to hell." She noted playfully as they began walking.

"Well, wouldn't oil be the Reploid equivalent to sexy mudpit wrestling?" He posited.

C2 burst out into laughter as she imagined it. "Yeah, I guess it would! A bit more hazardous due to the flammability though." She noted as they passed by a restaurant.

"So, how long do you have?" X asked her as they briefly stopped in front of an import store that had clearly used to sell Japanese products before the invasion.

Now its imports consisted of whatever products that had demand in Britannia or elsewhere overseas, mostly model kits, model supplies, random nonsense like plush toys and what were now luxury food items.

Most varieties of Manga and Anime had long since vanished from the shelves, the companies that made them long run out of business by either the physical destruction of their studio buildings or Britannian regulations.

The few that remained were produced by studios and production companies that had offices in Australia or India to relocate to.

"As long as I need, unless anything comes up. Same situation with you?" She asked.

"Yeah, they also gave me a lot of hazard pay and a few bonuses for taking down the enemy leadership and liberating the facilities they were controlling, command deducted _your_ portion of the work off the bounty." He half joked.

C2 rolled her eyes and slugged him on the arm, noticing the subtle pain in his eyes at the mentions of the deaths of his former comrades, even if they had been the enemy. "Say, how about you buy me lunch, or dinner or something, then we can talk about what comes later." She posited, trying to change the subject for X's sake.

X chuckled. "Pizza it is then."

"You know me too well." C2 said smarmily as she stuck her tongue out, giving her hips an added sway as she took the lead.

X smirked softly and followed her. "I know just the place too."

* * *

**June 9, 2019 ATB./1964 AD.**

**Pietro's Pizzeria, Arcadia City, Australia.**

"So here we were, getting migraines trying to convince the Zilkhstanis to swallow their pride and let us help them deal with an S-rank Maverick that was absolutely slaughtering two of their vaunted elite guard companies, when Zero finally has enough, strides past them, and leaps into battle without another word." X told C2, the other Reploid chuckling in reply.

"Yeah, Zilkhstan wasn't really prepared for the introduction of Reploids and Mechaniloids were they? You'd think the 'land of warriors' would've seen the writing on the wall when you've got Reploids like you, Zero, Vile, or Sigma running around being virtual one-man armies when you actually put effort into it." C2 noted dryly as she picked up a slice of pizza, carefully not putting herself among them to keep her cover.

X nodded and sipped at his drink. "I feel bad for them, their only claim to fame is that their soldiers were said to be among the best on the planet… And then higher-end Reploids come along and absolutely_ trash_ them in most arenas of combat."

Naturally, Zilkhstani mercenaries were still in_ very_ high demand, but for how much longer would that be the case? Britannia, thanks to Code R, was already producing Reploids that could readily defeat the average Zilkhstani soldier in combat, with rumors of a third generation R line Reploid in the works which would allow the R2s to totally replace the stopgap R1s in military service, thus cementing that advantage further.

Australia had thus been forced to release comparative technologies to the other power blocs to ensure that they didn't get steamrolled and thus ruin the delicate power balance, the EU's frontlines for example had been _devastated_ by a new generation of entirely Britannian made Reploids roughly equivalent to A and S rank Maverick Hunters before they managed to roll out an emergency program to compensate, stabilizing the front only after most of France fell.

And considering the amount of mass production type Reploids and Mechaniloids Britannia could churn out in a year with its substantial resources and industry, to say nothing of the higher end models they were starting to churn out, Zilkhstan wouldn't stand a chance if Britannia came back to avenge their previous defeats in force.

Even their supposed prophecies were no match for an almost endless legion of troops that cared not about their own losses and would willingly march into situations that even _Zilkhstani_ warriors would balk at.

"So, any other stories?" C2 asked, cocking her head.

"Well…" He mused about the overtures Marty had made during the Launch Octopus operation but X honestly wasn't sure if C2 was the jealous type. "There was an incident where I was forced to rely on Marty's help to knock out Launch Octopus, and she was rather... Interested for the lack of a better word."

C2 snorted and resisted the urge to break out into laughter. "Pfft. You actually think I'm the jealous type? X, we're soul bonded. I'm certain that with a name like that, there's a deeper connection at work than what you think it is." She told him. "Besides, Marty's a hot piece of ass and we both know it."

"Surprisingly mature of you, at least until that last part I was about to ask you are and what have you done with C2." He joked as he ate a slice of pizza. He idly remembered there was a BOLO for a high tier Reploid thief that had been issued recently in the Area 11 region, Marino if he remembered correctly.

The number of pinups of her that existed despite her only just debuting on the underground scene not that long ago was disturbingly large, so he had admittedly been a bit more worried that C2 would be more jealous of her than Marty.

Though to be fair, given C2's somewhat disconcertingly eager exploration of her budding sexuality he wouldn't be surprised if she ever tried to invite the other two into a foursome with them or something if given the opportunity, even if only as a joke considering she mostly acted perverted just to screw with him.

Which would be awkward as hell for him to try and negotiate with her about.

On the other hand, he considered it fortunate that _he_ wasn't the spiteful type, otherwise he'd have likely ripped into those Reploids with pinups of _C2_ during training ops and sparring sessions.

He'd shown them to her once, she'd laughed and jokingly asked if he wanted her to get additional 'upgrades' to more closely resemble the 'proportions' on some of the art.

She rolled her eyes. "I can be insightful you know."

"I know, I'm just giving you a hard time."

The grin on her face immediately made him regret those words. "Not the kind of 'hard time' I'd prefer."

He sighed in exasperation at the innuendo. "Why did I let you talk me into that aftermarket mod again?"

"Because you love me?" She asked, sticking her tongue out playfully.

X chuckled. "Of course." He said in a jokingly not entirely sure manner that got her to pout in annoyance. "So, how's the food?"

She gave him a thumbs up.

X chuckled softly. "What about dessert?"

"Oh, I already have plans for that back at your place." She hummed cheerfully.

"Do you have to keep shooting out innuendos?" He asked with some exasperation, at least he knew more about her preferences if nothing else.

She smiled earnestly at him. "If it gets under your plating I do, also I'll have to use 'shooting out' at some point."

He rolled his eyes as he gestured for the waitress to bring them their bill, finishing off his alcohol in the process, feeling the nanites flow down his catalytic processor's intake pipe as he did so.

* * *

**June 9, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**X's apartment, Arcadia City, Australia.**

X took of his jacket, gently placing it onto a hook on the door, dragging C2's suitcase inside behind him.

"Nice place, you opted for one of the higher-end ones." C2 noted as she flopped onto the couch and turned on the TV, a late-night talkshow where the host was questioning what the return of Zero meant.

She quickly changed the channel to cartoons.

He rolled his eyes. "Hmph, of course you'd watch cartoons."

She tilted her head back to look at him over the couch. "Well I _live_ this kind of geopolitical crap; can you blame me for wanting to indulge myself in fiction to get away from it?"

"I certainly can't." X chuckled as he sat down next to her after grabbing a couple beers from the fridge.

"Really, these need to be refrigerated?" C2 asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Tastes better when it's cold." He pointed out. "Don't ask why the nanites were engineered like that."

She shrugged and conceded the point to him before popping hers and taking a sip. "So whaddya wanna watch? So far the channel guide is only showing reruns, mostly because they're trying to catch up after production schedules got torpedoed by the mavs."

"I dunno."

She raised an eyebrow playfully. "Wait, I think I have an idea."

"And?"

"Well is there any decent Reploid porn? Because excuse me for being slightly xenophobic but I tend to not like seeing humans 'bumping uglies' as much as you think I would." She explained.

X shrugged, well aware of C2's hang-ups with humans due to their continued insistence in repeating their grandest mistakes almost ceaselessly. Admittedly she'd gotten better with it after acknowledging her own hubris, and he lived with it for the sake of their relationship anyways since she was doing the same for _his _pitfalls. He knew damn well that his almost impossibly naïve and somewhat pacifistic stance rubbed C2 the wrong way all too often due to her own experiences. Not perfect, but they made it work. "What's the difference?" He inquired.

"Well, for Reploids sex is recreational and gender is technically irrelevant to us even if we tend to follow human societal norms due to us being built by them." She pointed out. "We reproduce via workshops and factories, not nine-month gestation cycles. Why do you think so many politicians, CEOs, and Britannian nobles have attractive looking Reploid assistants?"

"Less baggage?" X offered.

She winked at him. "Bingo. It's easier for them to justify using a Reploid as a more interactive fleshlight than it is to explain why their human aide is suddenly pregnant, not that that stops people anyways."

X shrugged his shoulders and nodded. "Makes sense." He wasn't particularly happy about it, either the reality or C2's inherent cynicism leaking into her opinions of people, but what could he do?

Given her short two, three, years of being online, she hadn't exactly seen that much of how ordinary people lived and acted, instead witnessing some of the worst humanity had to offer, Reploids too.

She grinned at him, showing her teeth as she checked the channel guide. "By the way, if your hand isn't touching something on me within six seconds of it starting, I'm kicking your ass."

X chuckled. "Wouldn't be a night with you if you didn't. You've come a long way from the Reploid whom squirmed when she was getting eyed up that day I took you to Australia for a reactor overhaul you know."

C2 laughed. "I can't believe you remembered that!" She giggled as leaned her head back and gave him a catlike grin, giving X a decent view of the camera sets built into her pupils as they shifted automatically to refocus. "Y'know I can kick your ass anyways if you'd like."

X rolled his eyes. "Hah hah. So, you want to use protection?"

"I've got your X factor now to serve as anti-virus and it's physically impossible for me to get pregnant, the only one who needs protection here is _you_." She whispered into his audio receptor as she showed off her artificial teeth with her grin.

X gulped nervously. _"Hoo boy."_

* * *

**June 10, 2019 ATB.**

**Old Pendragon Imperial Hospital, Old Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Suzaku sat at Euphemia's bedside. Listening to the rhythmic hiss of breathing assist apparatuses and the steady beep of the heart monitor.

"Euphie…" He whispered softly.

Even now he was nearly driven to tears by the state she was in. And some part of him wondered if would've been more merciful for everyone if Lelouch had simply killed her that day instead of leaving her in a coma, possibly for the rest of her life.

His fists clenched at the thought of his former friend. "Lelouch..._ You deserve _everything_ you've gotten and will get for what you did to Euphie."_ Suzaku thought, resisting the urge to let a snarl break through his façade.

Ironically, Euphie still being alive had given him a lifeline from which to dangle over the abyss that was insanity. And Suzaku was genuinely afraid of what would occur if he let his darker thoughts get the best of him.

Sharp footfalls echoed behind him. He knew it was Cornelia without even looking over his shoulder, none of Euphemia's other notable female siblings aside from Nunnally or Marybell gave a rat's ass anyways.

"General." He stated respectfully.

"Sir Kururugi." She replied, Suzaku noting she'd brought Darlton with her, the man likely still blaming himself for leaving Euphie alone with Zero that day.

Not for the first time Suzaku wondered what she'd think if he told her who was under the mask, would it break her knowing her own brother had done such horrible acts? Would it send her into a rage?

There was no way to tell without actually doing it. Even though she'd apparently seen Lelouch's face, once vaguely mentioning Zero taking off his mask back at Tokyo, but his Geass had given her a brief case of anterograde amnesia for the duration of its effects as it did with seemingly everyone else he'd used it on.

"I'm just visiting, I'll be too busy in the coming days overseeing security preparations for the new viceroy of Area 11."

Cornelia nodded curtly at him. "I understand."

Cornelia had never quite approved of Euphemia's affection for an Eleven, particularly not one who was the son of the deceased Prime Minister of Japan. But then again, she wanted her sister to be happy.

Suzaku briefly wondered what would've happened had he and Euphie not grown so close, would the entire SAZ incident never have occurred? She'd partially done it for the sake of being with him.

A pointless line of thought, it wasn't like he had the ability to turn back time. What had occurred was set in stone.

Whether anyone liked it or not.

As Suzaku stood up, he sent one last glance back at Euphie. "I guess I should be off then." He said hesitantly, Cornelia nodding again.

He'd spend the entire _week_ at her side if he could spare the time, but the demands of a Round naturally precluded that.

So, Suzaku drew his cloak around himself and strode out of the room, leaving Cornelia and Darlton to their peace.

As Suzaku exited the hospital, he was surprised to see Rivalz standing there. "Rivalz? Shouldn't you be back at base?" He inquired as he strode up to the staff car the other young man was leaning against.

"I would be, but Lloyd was looking for volunteers again to try and fit something onto one of the Lionels for test purposes." The blue haired young man admitted. "This time it was apparently a mount for a back mounted hadron gun that was fitted _above_ the cockpit pod."

Suzaku sighed. "Of course." He groaned as they got into the staff car, which pulled away from the hospital soon after.

It had surprised Suzaku that Rivalz had enlisted. He'd initially thought that Storm Eagle's attack on Tokyo, which had for some time been sitting in the dangerously calm eye of the hurricane that was the Uprising, nearly blew Lelouch's cover during his brief stint at Ashford last year. He'd assumed the Emperor had Geassed the surviving faculty and students into believing he had been among the casualties.

Though Rivalz had actually denied that, and simply stated that Lelouch had transferred to a school in a safer region with Rolo and Clara, his 'siblings'.Which left Suzaku concerned.

Shirley and Kallen were officially listed as missing since the Black Rebellion, in reality they were wanted for high treason and currently fighting under Zero's flag. Sophie Wood, Shirley's ad hoc replacement and former roommate, was in college according to Rivalz. Meanwhile C2 was considered to have gone maverick and he _still_ had no idea what was going on with Milly and Nina. Even Lloyd wouldn't say, which raised Suzaku's suspicions given that the 'Earl of Pudding' was supposedly still betrothed to Milly as far as he knew even if Nina's work was indeed far above his clearance level.

Naturally the official line for why the attack had succeeded so dramatically was that the Area 11 garrison had been weakened by the Black Knights during the Black Rebellion, leading to otherwise preventable casualties among the civilian populace.

A half-truth, but still only a half-truth, one that was enough to drive his friend to enlist and perform well enough to get noticed by his staff, though Rivalz kept clamming up or getting aggravated and storming off when asked about the Uprising and exactly why he'd signed up.

For Rivalz's sake, Suzaku hoped he never remembered the_ real _past, it might very well shatter his mind trying to correlate the falsehoods and the truth.

_Especially_ if he discovered who was behind the mask of Zero.

* * *

**June 10, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

"And everything's going according to schedule?" Lelouch asked over the phone as he looked at the latest projections for their new airships and ground effect float system equipped landships.

["So far, but we're running into a recruiting problem and people are understandably wary about increasing our native Reploid production to make up for the lack of numbers."] Andrew Stadtfeld explained. ["We're able to get the showpieces ready for their debut but permanently crewing them will be another matter entirely."]

"I see, if anything changes, contact me." Lelouch acknowledged before he hung up and placed his phone on his desk, opening a tab on his internet browser and looking at the news.

'Britannian forces overrun Paris' was the primary headline, with images of the Imperial Jack flying from the Eiffel tower and Vincent Wards standing guard on either side of the Arc de Triomphe as a procession of vehicles, Knightmares, infantry, and Mechaniloids proceeded down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees.

Britannia had a long habit of lording over its conquest through placing its iconography over their cultural landmarks. Tokyo Tower was proof enough of that.

He himself had no love for the French, even with his mother's bloodline tracing its roots back to that country, despite his total disregard for the historical animosity between Britannia and that nation.

Lelouch chalked it up to France being effectively a micro-Britannia without any royal family or nobility given how it abused less influential or historically shunned Europan nations such as Britain and Ireland, ironically driving both countries to discreetly side with Britannia out of spite and a desire to restore 'national heritage'.

With their capital fallen, the locus of power in the EU now laid in Berlin, giving Germany de facto control of the supranational government.

Under the new management, the unified EU military, having been fused together from the various national forces, was holding the line steadfastly and even handing Schneizel and Maximillian substantial defeats in many sectors, rolling out new generations of war machinery en-masse to counter Britannian advances, but were still being forced to give ground in a fighting retreat to the French border, especially after Suzaku almost singlehandedly broke through EU defenses at Anzio with the Lancelot, cutting down dozens of EU Knightmares in the process.

There were protests of course to the total war mobilization, but the people had been plainly told to sit down and shut up or they'd deal with being numbers instead.

The amount of Zilkhstani mercenaries and Soviet 'volunteer troops' flooding into Europa was also not insubstantial, though the Zilkhstani would find that the modern Britannian Army was a very different beast from the force they defeated many decades ago.

Euro Britannia on the other hand had been barely relevant since Shin Hyuuga Shiang's failed coup gutted the other chivalric orders aside from the Knights of St. Raphael, combined with the Britannian military's distrust of their puppet state leaving the Euro Britannian Army's regular troops stuck on unforgiving occupation duties in Spain and France as a result.

Add in the fact that the Order of St. Michael had been largely shredded by Sting Chameleon's guerilla attacks, in addition to the absolute _disaster _that had been their engagement with the Lancelot, and it was fair to say that Shiang was an _idiot_ for launching his rebellion while risking being assailed on all fronts.

"No wonder Schneizel's trying to divide and conquer with his attempted to peace conferences, he needs to break the EU fast before they move on the Soviets or Britannia risks being pushed back on _both_ fronts due to overstretched supply chains and a lack of manpower."

He smirked and chuckled lightly to himself. "Especially since those plans were laid _before_ the Black Knights proved they were still a relevant threat to Britannian interests."

He glanced at his phone and briefly considered checking in on C2 but decided against it.

She'd be _livid _if he interrupted her at a bad time.

There was a knock at the door. "Who is it?" He demanded.

"It's Kallen."

Ah, _that _conversation… He wasn't particularly looking forward to it.

"Enter, shut the door behind you." He instructed as he turned in his chair slightly.

Kallen did as told, shutting the door behind her after walking inside. "We need to talk."

"So, what would Kallen, who abandoned Zero at Kamine Island, desire to know?" He inquired as he tilted his head boredly.

She narrowed her eyes. "You deceived me from the very beginning."

"Like you have room to talk." He shot back. Kallen flinched, knowing he was right. "Which lie offended you? My being Zero, or my Geass power?" He asked.

"Both of them…" Kallen nodded grimly as she strode closer to his desk. "I want to know… Were we just your pawns all along? Did you use your Geass on us to make us obey your orders?" She asked, voice quivering.

Lelouch huffed and opened his arms. "The answer to that should be self-evident Kallen. Everything you've done has been of your own free will. Your mind and heart were yours, as was your loyalty and admiration to Zero."

Kallen looked visibly shaken. "Bullshit." She denied.

Lelouch sighed and stood up, striding around his desk and gently cupping her chin. "My Geass forces those I use it on to obey orders without hesitation, without a second thought. Without care for their own _safety _should the need arise. Those who've been Geassed will fight like fanatics until the order has been fulfilled or they die in the process. They will not question their orders nor will they have any doubts about what they have been told to do." He explained coolly to an increasingly unnerved Kallen. "Moreover, they lack any sort of initiative to react outside expected conditions."

Kallen shivered at his touch.

"Plus, C2 would've likely blown my head off in a fit of anger long ago if I'd actually Geassed any of you into obeying my orders without hesitation, you know her hangups with that." He pointed out.

"I…" Kallen stopped hesitantly, aware that Lelouch was right about C2.

"Kallen, everything you did, everything you _all _did, was all of your own accord. You should be proud of that." Lelouch told her as he strode off to look at a board on the wall with charts strewn across its surface, charts showing the distribution of their forces, including intelligence cells Diethard had cultivated in Area 11 and Area 12. "You decided, _you _chose Zero, **all** of you did." He turned his head, saw the expression on her face, and frowned. "You don't believe me?"

"I wanted to believe so badly that I was nothing more than another mindless pawn…" She admitted after a moment, wrapping her arms around herself.

He closed his eyes and contemplated that. "I see…" He said when he finally opened them.

"But, the only one I believe in now is _Zero_… Just him. Not _you_ Lelouch, not in the slightest."

He looked down at the mask in his hands. "That's good, because Lelouch Lamperouge _died _nearly two years ago. When he was betrayed and _murdered _by his former best friend on Kamine island." Lelouch said, practically spitting out the second sentence. He meant it, even if he first had utterly destroyed the person Suzaku had once been back at the SAZ with the horrendous mistake he'd made there.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind but neither he nor Suzaku cared about seeing in the first place.

Kallen froze as she thought about what Lelouch meant by that. "All that remains, is _Zero_." He told her cooly.

With that final statement, he walked back to his chair and sat down, pulling out his outline for the speech he would be making in the coming days from the deck of the _Shinano_. "You're dismissed Kallen." He informed her.

The redhead's heels clacked together, and she turned and strode out without another word, leaving Lelouch to work in silence and isolation. He admired the level of discipline she'd acquired in the interim period, Kusakabe probably drilled most of the surviving Black Knights who didn't desert to achieve some semblance of military order for the purpose of salvaging morale, of course he could understand why she was so tense anyways.

"_The Power of the King would condemn me to a life of solitude… I understood what that implied even then, but actually dealing with it is another matter."_ He thought sadly as he flipped through his speech, memorizing it and noting down changes that could be made to it.

Still, he needed to find more answers about various concerns he had, including how long OSI had been monitoring him and what exactly Rolo's role in all of that was.

He had vague memories of being at Ashford the previous year, possibly a previous identity the Emperor had forced upon him before he became Alan Spacer.

"I suppose a visit to Area 11 is in order to find out what occurred. But first…" Lelouch mused as he picked up his phone to summon Nemo to his office and ask about any leads she might know of.

* * *

**June 11, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**X's Apartment, Arcadia City, Australia.**

The alarm buzzed in X's audio receptors as he idly swatted at the nightstand after coming out of sleep mode, hitting the snooze button and silencing it before rolling back over and pressing closer to the other body lying in bed, flowing green hair filling his vision as he nuzzled against C2, whom simply shifted slightly to make herself more comfortable as the familiar weight pressed against her.

The alarm buzzed again in ten minutes, X slapping the clock again before rolling over.

"Just hit the off button…" C2 mumbled softly as her blade-like ear antenna folded back, acting more out of laziness than physical fatigue given the human idea of it was different from the concept as applied to machines.

"I'll do that next time…" X replied as he huddled close to her.

A different beeping played out, from C2's side, the Reploid groaning and sitting up, not caring if the sheets slid off her exposed chest given the privacy of the room.

It was a text message from Nemo of all people. [Do you still have the files about the King from the Castle?] Read the message. It was coded, albeit poorly but enough to throw off any intelligence gathering algorithms for a bit.

She hit the pre-filled out yes without hesitation, aware that Nemo had meant the massive stockpile of info on Lelouch that'd been burning a hole in her memory banks since she'd stolen it and more than a few other things from the databanks in the Imperial Palace in Pendragon while looking for info about Geoworks International and Noelle Lalinde that'd been recovered from archaeological data.

Given that she'd brought along a bunch of overeager Neo-Patriots and gotten them all killed before going utterly batshit insane for nearly a week from the resulting realization that she was no better than Lelouch… Not a fun time for her to remember.

One of _many_ things that still haunted her nightmares.

[Good, we need to look at those when you get back, so make sure they're filed separately for data dump.] Came the reply after a few moments.

[Roger.] She texted back.

C2 sighed and laid back down, putting her phone on the nightstand and sliding back up next to X, the other Reploid wrapping an arm back around her as she drew the covers back up and tried to relax, to let her worries slip away just for a little bit.

"What was it…?"

"Business related…" She replied as she nuzzled a bit closer, their bare bodies pressed against eachother in the dark of the drawn blinds. The two Reploids relaxing in the morning afterglow.

"Yeah… Alright…"

And with that, the two of them drifted back into sleep mode.

Or they would've, had the alarm clock not gone off again.

C2's response was to get up, rip the cord out of the socket, and climb back in bed.

* * *

**June 11, 2019 ATB.**

**Western Imperial Palace, New Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

Liath strode through the halls of the palace, twelve of her soldiers flanking her, their black visors gleaming as their rifles were held at ready, the entourage heading towards Nunnally's quarters, bootfalls echoing in the otherwise silent halls.

C.C. glowered behind her mask as a familiar and very _irritating_ presence made himself known. The more forceful side of her that was Liath wanted nothing more than to rip the brat's code out of his body before putting a round through his skull. But _no_, the so-called gods would put their foot down and prevent that because she needed to be 'punished' for her hubris by suffering through the indignity of putting up with him until fate took the brat.

Otherwise she'd have done that the moment she encountered him and Charles and been done with it.

Or how she would've actually tried to be a decent caretaker for Mao... _That_ repeat had stung deeply and embittered her for some time, almost as bad as losing George again, especially given how casually Lelouch had taken him out this time with a Geassed SWAT sniper.

Nemo of course had been of little help, her erstwhile clone laying the seeds in Lelouch's mind for believing that she was an uncaring monster... Something that _wasn't_ entirely wrong at times but which cut deeper than any physical or emotional wound she'd suffered before.

Not like she deserved Lelouch's affections anymore given what she'd done, as much as she desperately wanted those old days with 'her' Warlock back... Those had disappeared when the Shinkiro, Lancelot, and Guren had been consumed by pink hellfire over Tokyo, the first stage of _everything_ going wrong.

_"Kallen. Why. Didn't. You. **Dodge.**"_ She thought with a sneer on her face.

Some 'Ace of the Black Knights'.

"And where do you think you're going?" V.V. inquired, redirecting her attention back to him as he stepped out of the shadows with two dozen Pluton operatives emerging as well and fanning out behind him, Liath turning to face him directly. She hadn't made any inclination that she was actively working against the plan, which meant that he was only _casually_ hostile to her as usual.

She intended for it to stay that way. The last thing she needed was him pressing Charles about why she was so close at hand, particularly given her practiced disinterest as part of the ploy to convince Marianne and V.V. that they were still onboard with Ragnarok. At least until they could be sure that Marianne wouldn't turn on Charles for the sake of that horrendous plan despite her expressed love for him.

In her experience it never hurt to be too careful. And the less people who knew what any given plan was until needed, the better.

**="I am simply ensuring that Princess Nunnally is in good health prior to her transfer to her new post. You can never be too careful, some rats always escape extermination you know, and they can carry quite nasty diseases."=** Liath taunted, utterly undaunted by his show of force.

V.V. would need at least twice that many operatives or a Knightmare given her level of training and experience this time around.

Her troops were certainly no slouches either.

The white and blue armored 501st troopers stared down the violet and black geared Pluton operatives, both sides waiting with well-disciplined fingers hovering next to their triggers for an order or an excuse to start shooting.

He didn't rise to the bait. "You needn't worry, so long as Nemo is lured out and captured I couldn't care less about Nunnally." V.V. assured her before turning and walking off, his cronies relaxing and following him.

C.C. waited until he was gone to relax as well, Victor had always got on her nerves, even before she'd known what a psychotic brat he was.

"_So long as Nemo is running around, they can't enact Ragnarok without running the risk of her using her perfect code to shut the connection down."_ She mused as she stood there. _"Still, Lelouch is moving slower than I anticipated, given he has an entire _fleet _and still hasn't made any major moves__ despite him only having a handful of troops and a room in the Chinese consulate in Tokyo to his name last time…"_

Concerning, but not out of the realm of reason, it's likely that he was trying to get a feel for what his forces were capable of due to their far greater overall strength rather than jumping the gun out of desperation to leave a psychological impact on his enemies.

There was also the situation involving her Reploid doppleganger, but that wasn't important at the moment so long as she curbed Lelouch's worst excesses. How, C.C. didn't care.

"_Hmph, the timeline may have been altered but I still understand how Lelouch's mind works all the same. Which means I won't be caught _completely_ flatfooted like I'd anticipated in a worst-case scenario."_ C.C. thought as she turned and strode back to her quarters, her troopers dutifully falling into a double-file line behind her.

* * *

**June 11, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMAS _Avalon_, Eastern Imperial Palace, Old Pendragon, Area 11.**

Lloyd hummed idly as he worked on one of his new theories late at night using Cecile's old concept from Colchester, though applied to an entirely different subject than Knightmares. "Hmm, its technically feasible on them... But the issue of _power _is the stumbling block..." He mused. "Still, if we could fit such equipment to a Reploid, with the appropriate software it would create a supersoldier beyond anyone's wildest dreams..."

He glanced over at the file that Prince Schneizel's aide, Kanon, had handed to him some time ago.

He hadn't opened it yet, but perhaps now would be a good time.

As he flipped the manila open and scanned through it he realized belatedly it was data gathered by Code R.

Reactor data to be precise.

"These numbers can't be right." Lloyd muttered in bewilderment, adjusting his glasses as he looked more closely. "There's no possible way that a mere solar reactor that size has such an output level, not even the new atomic reactors can match that level and rate of output despite being so much larger... Hmm... Limiters? Makes sense otherwise the systems using that much energy would literally melt under the stress of the overload. But for those to be _necessary_..." As he looked through the specs Lloyd noted the reactor's manufacturer.

Light Labs. As in Doctor Light, the mysterious man who created X. If he had a hand in Zero's Reploid ace in the hole, then that implied X also boasted similarly limitless potential.

His eyes widened as he remembered something Serges had told him about. "It can't be can it? How would he know about such an energy source if he never even worked on Code R or with X...?" Lloyd whispered as he opened a new tab on his browser and looked up any information he could find about this supposed 'Neo Energy Element Solar Induction Reactor', or NEESIR for short, a single one of which Serges had offhandedly stated boasted nearly _infinite_ energy.

Lloyd doubted it was actually infinite energy, but possibly the closest human technology would ever achieve to a near-perpetual energy device if such a device was feasible. Moreover, the matter of factness with which the Reploid scientist told him of it implied that he had substantial experience with such materials.

He found it... But it was classified _far_ above his level, and even _Suzaku_ would be hard pressed to get clearance for it either despite being a Round, so Lloyd let the subject drop and logged out.

The engineer leaned back and pushed up his glasses before crossing his arms. "Well now... I suppose this opens up a new mystery doesn't it... Just _how_ did Doctor Serges and Doctor Light make such a thing when everyone else is still struggling to build _nuclear_ reactors in the current age...?" He whispered to himself.

* * *

**June 11, 2019 ATB.**

**Unknown Location.**

Serges frowned as he inspected what lay before him.

Violen and Agile had recently informed him that Forte had finally gone rogue, unsurprising given how he took after Bass on top of lacking any protocols to force him to obey his orders, undoubtedly he'd be running silent for some time until he was ready to strike to maximize the element of surprise when he finally went after X.

He also took most of the Reploid Irregular Special Operations Corps with him, much to Madd's fury. Which precipitated the Sigma-type Reploid's return to Repliforce to command spec ops units.

No matter, even after his remodel from being 'X Kai' using some of the material recovered from his first incursion into Area N, something Serges never wished to do again given the utterly mindbreaking hellscape that temporal mess was, he was still very much the inferior of his _true _magnum opus from his days as Albert Wily.

He turned to the three figures standing in the shadows. "Monitor the equipment and allow _no one_ to disturb me, I have work to do." He told them.

The center figure, with a single glowing optic sensor at the side of their visor titled their head. ="Sigma requested that you prepare Zero for his use immediately…"= They pointed out.

"And Sigma will get _a_ Zero. Just not the one he_ wants _unless he wishes to wait longer. Especially given the materials I require to build him a new reactor." Serges replied flippantly. "You cannot rush perfection, especially perfection that wasn't perfected in the first place! So until then he can make do with this shadow!" He snapped as he got back to his work, the three figures nodding robotically in agreement as they silently moved to perform their instructed tasks while he pulled out his tools and began to work on this pale mockery of his greatest work.

* * *

**AN: Yep, four chapters in and Zero's already getting revived for the first time. Of course, given that he detonated his own reactor while holding onto a Ride Armor to give C2 and X a fighting change against Vile much like the original X1 game and Maverick Hunter X, it's going to take some time to repair.**

**Seriously, he's like the Optimus Prime of the Mega Man franchise, he just keeps dying and coming back to be the 11th hour messiah. Even ****_permadeath_**** couldn't stop him since he just came back as Biometal Model Z via his memories.**

**Also, I do like writing C2 and X, I just let the banter flow and keep what feels natural.**

**Ironic that I'm better at writing social interaction than actually performing it myself, though that's because I understand how the characters would react to eachother.**

**Also as for Lloyd, I wanted to feature him a bit more as sort of a occasional side thing that's being used for various characters also sets up major developments further down the line. In his case he's starting to get more and more curious about Reploids and 20XX (owing to Schneizel's manipulation), which is leading him down a Rabbit hole that Serges/Wily doesn't want to be investigated.**

**Also yeah, long story short, the entire reason the 'canon' timeline went wrong is because Kallen moved just slightly too slow and got shot in the face with the FLEIJA.**

**Which took out Suzaku and Lelouch in the blast as well due to them being too close to escape in time.**

**Naturally there was nobody else to oppose Ragnarok and C.C. was hardly in the right mind to go against it after having her memories revived by Marianne and learning of what happened to Lelouch, whom she'd developed feelings for and was quite unwilling to let go of due to sentimentality (to the point that in the Recap movie timeline she outright denied him his desired death out of her own selfishness. Which ended up working out because people continued to abuse Geass, making his return more or less neccessary since the Geass Order was wiped out.)**

**For want of a fucking nail indeed.**


	5. Turn 5: A New Phase Begins

**AN: Chapter 5 now, honestly as of the initial writing of this, I'm working on this faster than I was the interlude, dunno why, though it may be due to greater overall interest sadly enough.**

**A lot of the moments from that could easily occupy a vignette series mixed in with other snapshots as much as I hate to admit it, and given what I was writing that was likely going to be the case anyways.**

**Oh well, one of the hard parts of writing is to know when to scrap a concept as unworkable.**

**Oh yeah, by the way, some of the other G-line landships that first appeared in X1 are making their return starting in this chapter. Always found it odd that the G-1 command landship was implied to be part of a series from its very designation but we never saw any other models in the show. Though I suppose it's because the G-1 is the most frequently used type due to most of the other possible variants being suited for full-scale warfare rather than general use.**

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**Reviews:**

**undead3: Well I need to finish OZ as well owing to a need to find out more about that plotline. As for Nemo, well all she really takes from KoN nemo is the name, being derived from C.C., and her hair and eye color. She's really her own character since going full KoN is not only unfitting for the story but also kinda stupid.**

**As for KoN itself, yeah it's weird, not the worst thing but it's outlandish even for Code Geass. Good to lift stuff from but mostly just the Irregulars and Nemo since everything else is jump the shark tier over the top and the way Geass works is totally incompatible with the way it does in all other versions, functioning more as a generic superpower than a mental manifestation of a contractor's desires. So yeah, Nemo _will_ be having a large part in the story, but as a supporting character up until Lelouch faces off with the order.**

**Of course her motivations are still up in the air unlike C.C., who simply wanted to die or find a reason to keep living. That and having someone genuinely care about her for the first time in decades without being utterly psychotic like Mao.**

**As for C2, yeah I have plans for her issues and how that affects her dynamics with X down the line. Particularly since she's hardly told anyone close to her about the worst of them.**

**That'll change soon.**

**As for C.C., it always was ironic that she kept living in the past, unable to move on with her life until she met Lelouch due to falling into a rut early on by virtue of Medieval Europe being... Medieval Europe and constantly being out to kill her as a 'witch'.**

**And even then, in the compilation movie timeline she _still_ couldn't let the past go, saving Lelouch against his wishes.**

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**CT7567rules: Since I'm going by 55 year time difference logic which naturally involves more mature technology being used (even discounting the crossover with Mega Man) in comparison to the equivalent year in the AD calendar (for example a Britannian M60 MBT is more or less roughly on par with later gen MBTs being rolled out right now IRL), that being 1964 in this story. Armaments for combat aircraft include M61 equivalent linear vulcan guns, with the FV-6 having an external 25mm linear gunpod based roughly on the GAU-22 but without an IRL counterpart.**

**For missiles they have AIM-9 Sidewinders (functionally identical to later model sidewinders from IRL), AIM-4 Falcons (Which actually _work_ since most of the tech was made long before the missile was developed in this timeline), and AIM-7 Sparrows (which actually had an active radar homing variant planned IRL but was canned owing to tech being unable to miniaturize a usable radar to the extent needed until the mid 1980's), bombs are more or less ambiguous counterparts to IRL weapons such as SDB-IIs, laser and unguided bombs, early JDAMs owing to satellite technology playing catchup due to the focus on proven warmaking tools. Cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles largely replacing air dropped torpedoes, and the such.**

**Soviet and European aircraft have weapons based IRL counterparts (including structural changes to fit with performance differences due to them being more advanced) unless one didn't exist in which case it'll be a generic based on later IRL weapons.**

**VTOLs are also based largely on their helicopter counterparts, with the AV-1 Cobra being the mainstay Britannian attack gunship we see in the anime, even if it does derive more than a bit of its design from the AH-56 Cheyenne with some Apache and AH-1Z thrown in.**

**Other aircraft and vehicles I've used have real world design basis as well, notably the F-109 Foxhound being based on the F-15J Kai Plus from Paltabor and the F-15 STOL/MTD and preproduction F-15B No.2 that it in turn was based off of. Some aircraft from X1 which I've described before will make reappearances. The _Yamato_ is in turn based roughly on some 'fanart' for the lack of a better term of a modernized JS _Yamato_ as a BBG, same with most of the warship classes and designs with IRL counterparts, though the DDGs, Corvettes, Submarines and FFGs look dramatically different at times from their early Cold War/World War II era counterparts owing to the fundamental functional differences between the types as designed.**

**As for the Ace Combat stuff, I originally worked that into X1 while on an AC7 kick, but it fits well since fighter pilots are viewed more or less the same way mecha pilots are. A kind of knight, especially since in the modern age one must be an officer to fly an aircraft in most air forces, and historically the officers of most armies and navies were typically landed nobles (only wealthy nobles and royals could afford armor and a horse on top of the training required). Plus it works with the technological development, the Superplanes being the AC equivalent to advanced Knightmares with each filling their own niche. Naturally it's not going to be center-stage here, but I may end up writing something if I come around to it.**

**Well, onto the chapter.**

* * *

_"Believe me, you did _not_ want to deal with the fuckface recruits we had coming in around the time Zero came back... They managed to make bad calls almost every time. The only reason we didn't deal with that sooner is because Zero's hand got forced not long after."_-Shinichiro Tamaki, excerpt from _Rebuilding a Rebellion:_

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB.**

**Babel Tower, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Alarms blared through the immense building as a group of human and Reploid security guards under the employ of the so-called 'Black King' rushed down a hallway on one of the buildings many hotel floors, pistols and SMGs drawn as they searched for the intruder who had just stolen several prized acquisitions of one of the nobles who resided near the penthouse level.

As the guards rushed past a hallway intersection, almost bumping into a passing maid in the process, they failed to notice that she wasn't alarmed, but smiling.

After ensuring that the coast was clear she continued on her way.

"Another successful heist." The curvaceous Reploid chuckled as she pushed her cart to the closest service elevator and strode inside.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB.**

**Shinjuku Ghetto, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Marino whistled idly as she carried her ill-gotten gains to her hideout for inspection.

It was part of the game, anything worth _that_ much security was clearly of value to someone, even if only in an extreme niche at times.

Plus, it was more fun to auction it off if it was so niche that nobody else would buy it and then redistribute the money to the people who needed it.

She set the box down on a table and began to look it over before letting out a long whistle as she recognized the design of the hilts and the craftsmanship of the blades. "Did that idiot noble actually have some samurai clan's ancestral blades?"

These swords were priceless, worth tens of thousands of sterling apiece to collectors alone.

To say nothing of the self-important nobles who lorded such pieces over the conquered Japanese.

So, Marino took the box over to a stack of shelves and stowed it away after carefully wrapping it before heading off to take a rest before planning out her next heist, possibly on a distribution center for a supermarket inside the settlement itself, simple stuff like food rather than medicine until she could determine what the local supply was in order to avoid driving the Britannians to begin a crackdown by causing a shortage.

The work of a master thief was never done, or simple for that matter.

Maybe she should up the stakes far more next time? Zero was supposedly back, stealing his mask would be the greatest thrill she could think of.

She decided against it, while she _did_ live for the thrill of the theft, it _was_ counterproductive to steal from a potential ally and would probably get her killed in the process.

"Zero's the kinda guy I'd support anyways…" Marino chuckled as she laid down and crossed her legs as she relaxed.

There was a gentle knock at the doorframe, the Reploid smirking as she stood up and looked over to see a shadowed figure standing there. "So, took you long enough to track me down."

"Your schooling under the Arashikage made it difficult." Sayoko replied as she stepped into the light, an amused glimmer in her eyes. "Hard Master has trained you well."

The Reploid briefly bowed to the Ninja. "I take that as a complement from the last scion of the Shinozaki clan. Now about the offer you're undoubtedly going to make for me. If it involves stealing from Britannia, I'm in."

Sayoko smirked, this was about as easy as expected. "Very well then, come with me and I'll give you your orders." The ninja told her as she turned and carefully strode out of the room, having long forgone her maid outfit for the garb of a Kunoichi themed after it.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB.**

**Castle Weisswolf, Franco-German Border, EU.**

Leila strode into the command center of the W-0 unit's operational base, currently operating as a linchpin on the Siegfried line.

"Report!" She barked as her subordinates turned to face her.

Claus turned to face her; the man grim-faced. "Colonel, as you know Britannian land cruisers and their support troops have halted their movements on our position. We've confirmed why, they have super-heavy artillery."

Leila frowned, wishing she'd had an alternative to fighting.

The abortive attempt to desert had failed _dramatically _when Pluton came after them and slaughtered much of the troupe of Roma they were hiding amongst, forcing the deserters from W-0 and the Ashra strike force to flee back to EU lines after the Banshee of Pendragon intervened and in turn massacred the Pluton troops. They'd been granted a pass from prosecution in exchange for returning to frontline duty, a deal that made it clear as day that the EU had little choice but to accept any help they could get.

Leila had understood even at the time that _she_ had been Pluton's target due to her Geass, that woman she'd gotten it from had warned her that once the ability was noticed others would come from her and her alone due to it.

Everyone else with her was collateral.

On the subject of the Banshee, that Reploid had also called them out for being cowards after saving them, unwilling to face their problems head on and only running away like scared children.

The final straw was when the Banshee had pointedly told her that if the EU fell, the Japanese among the W-0 deserters would be persecuted anyways due to their homeland being Area 11.

In hindsight, trying to hide a bunch of Japanese among the Roma was utterly idiotic anyways.

Shortly thereafter the Banshee, C2 she said her name was, earned her _second_ nom-de-guerre from the German national army in response to saving several of their divisions from being wiped out by a Britannian trap by blowing a hole in the enemy lines.

The 'Walküre von Razgriz'.

She'd done so seemingly at the cost of her own life by delaying the Knight of Seven as long as she could before the Grun and Schnee Squadron of the German Marineflieger had arrived and sent him _and_ the _Avalon_ packing. Even the most advanced multirole Knightmare yet fielded couldn't defeat one battle strength fighter squadron, let alone _two_. Though given her appearance with Zero during his broadcast of his own return it was now known that rumors of her demise had apparently been greatly exaggerated.

On that note, Leila still had no idea what or who Razgriz was supposed to be, though she supposed it was some Valkyrie's name that had been mistranslated from Old Norse.

She'd have to ask Claus about those old legends later.

Back on her previous mental topic; it was thanks to that Reploid that Leila had realized there would be _nowhere_ they could run if the EU fell, as it would only be a matter of time before Britannia went after the Soviets, likely using the EU as a springboard to launch their invasion.

And then China and Australia would be next on the chopping block unless someone halted the inexorable advance of those tin-plated bastards.

And that's if the Eunuchs didn't sell their own country to the devil first, leaving the 'Land Down Under' utterly alone against a nation which controlled the rest of the planet.

Even Zero, should he have returned after this rather than before, couldn't fight the entire Earth's resources if Britannia simply drowned the Black Knights and every other insurgent group in Reploids and Mechaniloids until they broke under the strain.

A defeat like that, no matter how legendary a last stand, would've shattered _any _will to resist for quite some time, especially if Zero's body was unmasked.

Which left her in her current situation, to hold the line and prevent Britannia from overrunning _everyone_ via domino effect.

"What's our defensive line look like?" Leila inquired as she strode over to a tactical console.

"Holding, but we don't have the firepower or troops to break through to the big guns." Claus noted ruefully, pointing at the holograms that showed a quartet of Britannian G-19 super-heavy artillery guns and their attendant forces well behind the frontline. "Based on the caliber I estimate about sev-" The castle shook violently as something impacted the forcefield protecting it, a retrofit based on Reploid shielding technology that had been added in the aftermath of the Order of St. Michael's raid on the W-0 Unit's base. Some of the less secure lights flickered in their sockets as they rattled from the shock. "Er… Six salvos before our barriers go down and the Castle is doomed."

Leila frowned as she observed the Britannian mobile siege battery. "Once we're gone those siege guns will rip the rest of this sector's fortifications apart. Do we have any surface-to-surface missile batteries to engage them? Even if we merely damage the weapons it will buy time for the air force to sneak in some planes and finish the job."

Claus looked over at an operator, whom nodded and highlighted a group of G-line landships that made Leila's blood run ice cold.

"We do, but there's a number of G-3 Anti-Air cruisers and G-10 missile defense cruisers protecting them in addition to the usual Anti-Air companies. We also expect Hurricanes or Spitfires in addition to the typical float equipped Vincent Wards, Brightons, Vincents and Gloucesters aboard a nearby quartet of G-8 Knightmare carriers, that being on top of the Sutherlands undoubtedly guarding that battery. Nothing we throw short of a full wave of strategic bombers or multiple batteries of MLRS or SSM units firing from standoff range would get through, and any of those that could aid us are already committed to other operations." He explained grimly as the mentioned Britannian forces appeared on the map as he noted them.

Leila inspected the map, looking for an opening they could exploit, seeing none, and trying to think of an alternative plan before remembering the base's transerver pad. "Do they have jammers set up?" She inquired.

"No, not reall…" There was a glimmer of recognition in his eyes as he paused mid-sentence. "I see, an absolutely brilliant plan Colonel."

"Risky, but worth it." She agreed before turning and walking over to Olivia's console, whispering something into the young woman's ear, Olivia nodding before passing on the orders to EU SATCOM.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB.**

**Royal Britannian Army Heavy Siege Battery Sledge 1-3, near the Franco-German Border, Britannian Occupied EU Territory.**

Lance Corporal Francis Parker yawned as he and his squad stood on guard duty a safe distance away from one of the G-19 super-heavy siege guns, dubbed _'Paris Penny'_ by its crew, a Sutherland idling nearby to save energy. Not far from Parker, a full geared Staff Sergeant with a shotgun cradled in his arms was chewing out a pair of PFCs, Simmons and some former Seven named Grif who'd been idly dicking around on guard duty and talking about their usual random shit like 'why they were here'.

The two hadn't stopped bitching at eachother since they'd been transferred out of their old cushy security duty guarding rusting Glasgows in Area 11, much to the annoyance of the rest of the unit. Their current argument had been about the massive shitfest that had been the reveal that someone had inadvertently switched Area 5 and Area 7's designations in the massive organizational reshuffling that had followed Area 11's induction into the Empire. Something only first noticed when Area 18 had been conquered.

Naturally the Senate had to pass an emergency bill making Area 7 part of the Homeland proper as Hawaii without affecting Greenland's status and causing severe unrest. Particularly in the wake of the Uprising.

The hardliners among the conservative Imperial Party had scored yet more concessions on military spending and relaxed regulations on law enforcement and businesses from the Flare Party in the process. With many wondering why the Flare Party actually existed since it clearly did little to stem the desires of the hardliners.

God the mess hall had been full of arguments between moderates and hardliners the day afterwards.

"I'm telling you; the damn Europans are up to something." A passing soldier claimed.

"And I'm telling _you_, that there's no way they have a cannon that big." His duty-mate scoffed.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Parker inquired boredly when they neared him.

"One of the recon Mechaniloid guys I've been talking to said that the EU Army just totally shut off power to most of the towns near that castle we're firing at." The first soldier replied.

"Yeah, and? That could just be them suffering a power outage." The second soldier said, rolling his eyes beyond his goggles.

"No way, they're probably trying to power some huge ass positron gun or something." The first retorted.

"Yeah, and how the fuck are they going to shoot at us through the range of hills and low mountains between us and them dipshit?" The second man mocked.

Before Parker could open his mouth to add to the argument, _Paris Penny _exploded, the shockwave sending them all flopping to the ground as chunks of metal flung through the air, crushing supplies and vehicles.

"OH FUCK!"

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?"

"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Someone screamed as they got back up, only to see a dozen scuttling forms race towards the next siege gun while under heavy fire from Mechaniloid spider tanks and the defense unit's Sutherlands and armored cars.

One of the Orange insect-like machines switched to a humanoid form and ripped the nearby Sutherland apart with its Judgement assault rifle while one of the two idiots the Sarge had been chewing out screamed for a nearby traffic cone to protect him as the three dove for cover, the Knightmare's cockpit pod ejecting as the machine's Yggdrasil drive brewed up.

"ENEMY KNIGHTMARES! CALL FOR BACKUP! CALL FOR BACKUP!" A soldier screamed as he sprinted towards a communications truck, which was promptly shredded by gunfire from one of the Alexanders.

"How the fuck did those Knightmares get here!?" Parker shouted as he searched for any infantry use anti-material weapons that could damage the enemy machines.

"They transervered in! I saw them!" The man who took cover behind the overturned M151 Humvee next to him barked.

"The fuck!? You can't transerver people! Organics don't survive the transition to cyberspace or whatever the fuck the process is!" Parker shouted as another of the guns was destroyed in the distance, its barrel falling down to earth.

"Nobody said these bastards were manned!" The other soldier snapped back as he picked up a LAW, aimed, and fired at one of the Drone Knightmares, hitting it in the leg and sending it tumbling into the dirt.

"Oh fuck…" Parker whispered as he watched the Alexander Drones continue their rampage through the battery and its ammo stockpiles, ignoring anything not directly in their way that wasn't listed as a priority target, soon suffering losses as the Britannians re-organized and counterattacked.

* * *

**Castle Weissewolf, Franco-German Border, EU.**

"The last of the enemy guns is destroyed." Leila stated before exhaling in relief.

"And not a moment too soon." Claus murmured as the final few Alexander Drones dropped off the map, wiped out by guided bombs from a Britannian FB-14 Strike Fang that been acting as a fast response aircraft. "Doubt we'll be able to repeat _that_ trick again."

"Well, at least we bought time for reinforcements to move up, and removed four critical pieces from the enemy's side of the board." Leila noted hopefully as she sank into a command chair, looking at the red boxes that represented the destroyed siege guns.

"As expected of the 'Second coming of the Maid of Orleans' no?" Claus chuckled, Leila giving him a small smile in response.

"I believe so, nevertheless, we must prepare for an enemy counterattack."

He nodded. "I'll notify Akito and the others to stand by." He stated before turning and walking out of the room, leaving Leila behind.

She prepared to get herself a mug of coffee when one of the operators, Sarah Danes, turned around in her seat. "Colonel! We have an unidentified transmission coming in over all channels!"

Leila frowned, there was only one man she knew of who was capable of such a feat. "Put it on." She ordered, bracing herself for what was to come.

The main screen flickered to life, revealing the masked visage of Zero, standing atop the turret of a battleship, a large blue flag with a stylized Dove superimposed over a globe flanked by two olive branches mounted on the central 'mast' superstructure behind him.

[="People of the world! Once again, it is I, _Zero!_"=] The masked man's voice crowed. [="Today, I have decided to make a grand declaration. It is with great _pleasure_ that I hereby declare a new phase in my plan to _change_ the world, the founding a new forum from which Nations will be able to publicly resolve their disputes and seek arbitration in diplomatic affairs! Thus I hereby announce the founding of the **United Federation of Nations**, an organization which seeks to avoid conflict through negotiation and end battles that erupt in spite of it through peacekeeping interventions, a force which will render the immense military forces maintained to oppress the weak functionally _**obsolete**_! And with it, an **official** declaration of _war_ against Britannia, a nation whose opportunistic and self-serving values are utterly anathema to those held by all member states of the UFN, to this end I hereby reorganize the Black Knights as an elite military force of the UFN!"=] He announced as the camera zoomed out and panned, revealing numerous naval vessels arrayed around the _Shinano_, over three dozen airships roaring above, including the_ Ikaruga_ and the shadowed underbellies of a pair of absolutely _immense_ flying wing carriers almost as large as Britannia's kilometer-wide _Morrigan_-class. Ryuujins and air-glide equipped Ronins, Meigetsus and Akatsukis, both standard and command types for the latter, roaring over in mass formation alongside fighters, attack planes, VTOLs, helicopters, support aircraft, and bombers, each one flying the emblem or flag of the Black Knights _and_ the UFN as well.

[="Hear me Britannia and take heed! Know that _this time_, we are truly prepared for it!"=] He declared as he clenched his outstretched hand into a fist.

The masked man tilted his head, a sort of smugness radiating off the gesture. [="My question is… Are you?"=] Zero asked softly, as if daring Britannia to respond to this show of force.

The transmission cut off with the Black Knights' usual logo, Zero having let the show of force do most of the speaking for him.

Leila felt her heart racing in her chest.

"Colonel?" Olivia asked as she and Sarah turned to face Leila.

"I think this war just got a lot hotter…" She breathed in awe, utterly shocked by the dramatic reveal of the Black Knights' hidden strength. Though she knew that perhaps at least some of it, particularly with the ships likely being undercrewed, was smoke and mirrors typical of Zero's flair for the dramatic.

Perhaps sending out feelers to join up with them would be prudent, particularly if the EU army attempted to abandon them again.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**X's Apartment, Arcadia City, Australia.**

X stretched and yawned as he slid out of the bed, checking his self-diagnostic register as he dressed himself and strode to the kitchen.

"Morning." C2 called as she desperately tried to remember how to make pancakes like Lelouch had shown her once.

It turned out that sorting through the chaff to find what data you were looking for got harder the more memories a Reploid accumulated, something which she knew shouldn't have surprised her.

"Morning…" X replied as he grabbed a bottle of milk, actual milk rather than some nanite substitute and sat down.

"You ever get odd looks when buying actual food?"

"Yeah, most Reploids have to eat some nanite substitute that gives them a simulation of how something tastes. Naturally I've tried the stuff and let me tell you, half the stuff that should taste kinda like chicken tastes nothing like chicken." He half-joked with a smile on his face.

C2 smirked knowingly. "Yeah, all the other Reploids in my unit give me funny looks whenever I tell them that their nanite cheese tastes nothing like actual cheese. Our creators really were brilliant, weren't they?"

X nodded in agreement. "Yeah, they were… I just wish we could've spent more time with them, or even remembered them better…" He mused sadly as C2 looked down at the stovetop.

"Families we never met, dozens of siblings we could've interacted with… It's not fair is it…? Then again… If life was always fair what's the point of struggle, of doing anything?" She said thoughtfully.

"Philosophy? You've changed more than I thought." X noted as he looked over at her.

C2 smiled softly. "Yeah, me finally getting closure put a lot of my demons about my past to rest…" She wiped her face clean of some tears, remembering Dr. Lalinde's final message that she recovered after tracking it down to an obscure research site in the EU.

While half-_dead_ thanks to a sudden case of Spinzaku applied to the body via Lancelot with her shields down. The impact from the Knightmare's foot had almost totally caved her torso in.

She still had no idea why Suzaku didn't finish her off, probably because he was sentimental. Would explain why he didn't simply shoot Lelouch in the head despite what he did to Euphemia, though she could be chalked up to his opportunism as well.

"Here I was, ripping myself apart thinking that she would've been disappointed in me, on top of my other issues… And truth be told, I wouldn't've been surprised if she had, given what I've done…"

X put a hand on her shoulder, having gotten up while she was talking. "Like I said back on Kamine, you're not a monster, a monster would've had no regrets about their actions. Well maybe at the end they might, but the fact that you look back at what you've done, feel ashamed about it, and wondered how you could've been better, and then trying to apply that… That's what I think being human really is, the ability to make mistakes and to acknowledge and move on from them."

C2 smiled and nestled her head against his shoulder. "Thanks. You know, some people would call you naïve and stupid for not giving up on me with all the issues I have…"

X chuckled. "Given that my life's mission is to try and work to allow humans and the machines they build to live in harmony, long odds and enduring waves of problems are my specialty by design." He joked while ruffling the emerald nanofilament hair on top of her head.

She smoothed out her hair as she flipped the pancakes. "Maybe that's why Doctor Light and Doctor Lalinde built us to be complementary…? The variable and its definition?"

"Well, we're technically the Adam and Eve of machines, and you being based on my architecture and all." He said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

She gently prodded one of his round 'ear' audio pickups with the spatula. "Don't get biblical on me, I'm in no mood to pursue the forbidden fruit of knowledge because some serpent is an asshole." C2 jested before hurriedly turning it back to the pancakes lest they burn.

X raised his hands in mock surrender as he chuckled and walked back over to the table, leaving C2 to finish making their breakfast in peace.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB.**

**Zero's Office, Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Lelouch frowned as he worked on the UFN's new charter, hoping to make it as appealing to as many nations as possible. Some of the concessions he was already foreseeing were related to national militaries, which though greatly downsized would _not_ disappear, as the last impression he wished to give was that the UFN was Britannia by another name. Especially since he was _still_ short on manpower to crew all the war machinery he had on hand. "Explain it to me again."

Nemo rolled her eyes. "What else is to explain? When a body part of mine is damaged beyond repair or ceases to function, it is replaced automatically by a 'spare' from C's world, in the event my entire body is destroyed, my code transfers my essence into a new one identical to the previous down to the finest detail. It also increases my body's healing factor by a substantial margin, meaning disease is unable to affect me. However, when one acquires a code, the body is physically stuck in whatever peak state it would be at the time the code sets in. For example you would never be able to gain additional muscle mass should you acquire a code in your current state." She clarified.

"I got that part, but what the _hell_ is C's world?" Lelouch groaned as he rubbed his temple.

"Oh, that. Think of it as the 'realm of souls' or something. It's basically limbo or the afterlife if you wish to think of it like that, it's impossible to navigate properly unless you're a code bearer, or even to reach it really." She explained with a half-hearted shrug. "A lot like how cyberspace acts for Reploids now that I think about it."

"Are there any other code bearers I should be worried about?"

"Aside from C.C., the original, not the Reploid who annoys the crap out of the both of us sometimes, there's a handful of others with a complete code such as G.G. and V.V.. As an aside I'm unaware of how many _fragments _of code are floating about, but _complete_ codes, which provide the aforementioned full link to C's world that gives one effective immortality, are quite rare."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow as he reclined in his chair. "What's the difference between a complete code and a fragment…?"

"A fragment can only issue and interfere with Geass contracts, not interact fully with the minds of those around the bearer, nor can it successfully enter C's world without another Code Bearer's assistance or an opened door. Additionally, the imperfect code cannot repair their body from devastating fatal damage due to the incomplete link. A fifty caliber round shattering your skull apart like an overripe melon would be just as permanent with an imperfect code as it would if you were merely mortal, though I do not know what would happen to the code if that were to occur. However, fragments can also use a modified version of their Geass with far greater control and even the ability to cancel commands that've been issued."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow, particularly at the mention of being able to shut off a Geass command at will. "I see, so while they're dangerous, they're less so than a full Code Bearer or a high-end Reploid unless Geass comes into play." He summarized.

"That's the gist of it, the most dangerous would be someone with Code Geass."

"Code Geass?" Lelouch inquired.

"Someone who holds the power of both a complete Code _and_ a fully matured Geass that they have full control over, hence the name." Nemo clarified. "Though this is only a theoretical concept." She lied, knowing that C.C. had Code Geass herself for reasons she didn't know.

That and she didn't know how she herself had been made with a full functional perfect code, the low success rate had led to _that_ project being scrubbed and Nemo had no idea what the remaining details were, being unable to find out and bolting at the best opportunity she had. She still believed that her template, she refused to acknowledge C.C. as 'mother', allowed her to escape the Order's EU facilities.

"So, there's four full Code Bearers, C.C., V.V., G.G. and yourself as N.N.." He mumbled while rubbing his chin.

"That _I_ know of, there could be more whom are living life in hiding. Veteran Code Bearers usually learn to hide their presence from their peers after a time." Nemo informed him with a shrug.

"Knowing that, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if J.J. showed up claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth or something." Lelouch scoffed as he picked up a folder.

"Knowing Geass and Code, it's entirely probable Jesus _was_ a Code Bearer." She noted as she leaned against the wall lazily, Lelouch frowning as he briefly wondered who else in history could've had Geass or Code.

"Anyways, since we have clearly nothing else to talk about on this subject... What's with that Dakimura you have in my quarters on the _Ikaruga_…?" Lelouch began with a smug grin on his face, clearly making an attempt to needle her.

Nemo went red and fled the room faster than he could blink, an unusual break in her character.

"Hmph… Not surprising all things considered." He observed as he went back to his work.

Now, to issue a formal apology to his troops… Damnit, he was terrible at apologies. Especially when they were warranted.

* * *

**Unknown Date.**

**Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Cannon shells echoed through the streets of Tokyo as a force of Akatsukis and Ronins rushed towards their next objective.

["Bravo and Alpha teams are to head to sector five and perform a diversion, Domino and Charlie teams to settlement route six to hold off oncoming enemy armored troops, Easy and Fox teams will move on Britannian forward command center."] A voice chattered over their comms as a flight of Ryuuseis screamed overhead, the general-purpose clones of the Shinkiro weaving through light AA fire in fortress mode.

["Enemy armor at ten o'clock!"] Someone reported as a group of M60 MBTs rolled up a major avenue, backed by M48A3s and M41A3s.

The tanks fired their respective 105mm, 90mm, and 76mm medium velocity linear cannons in a successive volley, the Knightmares scattering as they saw the muzzle flashes from the tanks, in some cases only narrowly dodging glancing hits from the incoming APFSDS and HEAT rounds by scant millimeters, their Knightmares being buffeted by the passing projectiles as they tore through the air.

An Akatsuki cannon and two Ronin cannons retaliated with their back mounted 105mm howitzers, moderately damaging the equipment on the exteriors of several of the leading armored vehicles but doing little meaningful damage to the tanks themselves owing to the lower weight shells used for Knightmare artillery, turrets tracking over to where the shells had come from.

["Bravo-4 troop stop firing HE at them you dumbasses! You're not going to be penetrating their armor with that caliber!"] Tamaki shouted angrily over the comms as his Akatsuki burst from cover and fired a pair of 120mm HEAT rockets from the arm bazooka of his Knightmare, destroying the two lead tanks with shots to the side to bypass their composite armor and forcing the rest to withdraw under the cover provided by their chaffsmoke grenades. ["Now get to the next position!"]

["R… Roger!"] The leader of Bravo-4 Troop replied sheepishly as they moved out.

["This is Raijin 03, enemy aircraft inbound, multiple A-9s with Spitfire escort."] One of the Ryuuseis reported. ["Moving to engage!"]

["Wait!"] Ohgi shouted as their air cover moved to attack the incoming aircraft and VKMFs, letting a flight of AV-1 Cobras slip through beneath them and begin plinking ATGMs and chaingun fire at the advancing Black Knights, causing substantial casualties to their armored and mechanized troops.

["MORONS! SOMEONE BLOW THOSE GUNSHIPS OUT OF THE SKY!"] Tamaki yelled over the radio.

["On it!"] An Akatsuki pilot replied before breaking cover and opened up at the VTOLs, which backed off as the 25mm rounds sprayed uselessly into the air.

A Hellbrand ATGM lanced out from a previously hidden Britannian M901 IATV, an anti-tank version of their ubiquitous M113 APC, and impacted directly, the Knightmare slamming into the ground after the pressure jet destroyed the cockpit and killed the pilot.

Tamaki groaned. ["I meant the goddamn infantry with the Redeyes, not you idiots!"] He shouted furiously at them.

The rest of the squad vanished in a hail of 30mm and 57mm rounds as one of the Tempest IIs strafed their obvious position, the straight winged and twin-tailed aircraft banking and pulling up as its three rear-mounted jet engines roared. The deafening buzz of its rotary linear cannon filling the air as it passed.

Ohgi simply groaned audibly.

["This is Fox team! One high speed contact moving on our position! OH SHI-"] Fox 01 began before cutting off suddenly as Easy and Fox team rapidly flicked over to LOST on the TACMAP.

Ohgi began to sweat nervously as the unknown swept through his forces, devastating them in concert with the standard Britannian forces.

Soon, he and Tamaki were the only ones left, their air cover having been shot down by the fighters escorting the attack planes after they got distracted by the Variable Knightmares.

["Kallen's going to rip shit into them after this…"] Tamaki told Ohgi as they awaited their inevitable fate.

["You think she's going to leave _us_ out of it?"]

["Hey! We were in prison cells for the past two years so some things can slide! Besides, man you're _really_ not cut out for Knightmare combat. And that's coming from the guy who everyone gives shit for being the first to eject!"]

["Too bad Inoue's already the captain of the _Ikaruga_… I'd've liked that position."] Ohgi mused as the _red_ Lancelot rounded the corner, raised its VARIS, and fired.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights Training Command, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

[SIMULATION OVER. TOTAL DEFEAT.] The computer announced unhelpfully as Ohgi's cockpit opened up, the man hopping out and walking down the line of Knightmare and aircraft simulator pods with the other pilots as Kallen tapped her foot impatiently.

Ohgi blinked in confusion. "Kallen? I thought you were piloting that Lancelot…?"

"I let Shirley have a go at it. Besides, you honestly think I wouldn't automatically use melee as my first option?" The Redhead scoffed indignantly, but gave him a wry grin to show she wasn't taking it seriously at all.

Ohgi smiled softly. "Yeah, I guess you would. So, how bad are the rookies getting chewed out?"

"Considering that _Tamaki_ lasted longer than them given his infamous luck, I'd say pretty hard." Kallen stated with a shrug.

Ohgi sighed and nodded before he strode over to where Todoh and Kusukabe were reviewing the sim results with Shirley, Kallen and Tamaki joining him soon after.

"See, their coordination is off." She told Kusukabe as they watched Domino squad get ripped apart individually rather than attempt a concerted move to engage her in combat. "And Domino is one of the _better_ squads for working in unison."

"Yes, that has been an issue with some of the newcomers, they think that being a Black Knight is about wearing the uniform and prancing about, preaching justice…" Kusukabe muttered as Todoh grimaced further. "And that Zero would handle everything on his own. They buy too much into the myth rather than the man."

"Then let's have Zero lead them during a training op, see how well they do." Ohgi suggested. "If anything, it'll allow us to get a real opinion on how they handle situations when led by a skilled commander. But we'll have to ratchet up the difficulty to match."

Everyone nodded. "I'll bring it up to Zero as soon as I have the chance. But I'm not sure he'll have the time for it right now." Todoh stated as he turned to look at the weary cadets. "Kusukabe, you can handle them from here."

The other ex-JLF member nodded and strode over to the cadets, the young men and women falling into line as he began berating their actions during the simulation.

"So, wanna meet up in the officer's mess later, catch up on stuff?" Ohgi asked Kallen as he turned to look at her.

The redhead shrugged and gave him an earnest smile. "Honestly, it'd help me relax a bit."

"Good that you acknowledge that, getting too high-strung leads to people making mistakes." Ohgi said as he nodded and walked out.

Kallen put a hand on her chin thoughtfully. "High-strung…?" She whispered.

She noted how _relaxed_ C2 had been after she came back into the fold, as if she'd learned how to calm herself down rather overload herself to the breaking point.

That or it was _actually_ a result of her getting laid, causing Kallen's mind to wander.

"_No! Don't think about Lelouch like that!"_ She scolded herself mentally as she flushed red, Shirley noting the change and pouting angrily, knowing what she was likely thinking about. "Hey! Wait! Shirley!" Kallen yelped as the ginger stormed over to her.

* * *

**June 12, 2019 ATB/1964 AD.**

**Waterfront, Arcadia City, Australia.**

C2 spotted a jet passing overhead at high altitude as she relaxed near the water, zooming in as far as she could to try and gauge what it was out of boredom.

"You're not going to see anything discernible if it's that high up." X pointed out as he stepped out of the surf, brown hair rustling in the ocean breeze even as the seafoam clung to his blue plated feet and lower legs.

She shrugged and adjusted her shades, noting it was moving far too fast to be an airliner and ascending too quickly to be a fighter on patrol, additionally most spyplanes were significantly slower than that. She supposed it was perhaps one of the rumored Super Sylphs used by the Australian Air Force's elusive Faery Air Detachment for black operations like armed long-range recon over foreign countries. "Eh, doesn't stop me from trying." C2 said flippantly, enjoying herself as she waited for the inevitable text or call from Lelouch or Nemo.

At some point.

"What're you even waiting for?" X whispered as he sat down next to her, trying to avoid giving the impression he was staring too much at her bikini.

And failing miserably.

"The call to action. In the most literal sense possible." She replied with a smirk, trying to keep the mood light.

X chuckled. "Sounds about right." He said as he laid down, green eyes looking up at the sky, enjoying the quiet moment with C2 for the time being before closing his eyes.

"Zero…" He whispered softly, wondering if the world his friend sacrificed himself for was worth it if it took the _other_ Zero's return to maybe right the wrongs that were being committed.

C2 gently took his hand, causing him to smile softly.

Even if the world hadn't changed, he'd make his friend's sacrifice mean something, Doctor Light and Doctor Lalinde had entrusted him and C2 with the future, a future Zero had died for. He wouldn't let _any _of them down and he was sure it would be a cold day in hell that C2, despite her issues, would as well.

* * *

**June 13, 2019 ATB.**

**C's World.**

Charles frowned as he heard footfalls behind him, far too soft to be Bismarck, Marianne, or even C.C.

"Big Brother." He greeted as V.V. strode up next to him.

"Charles. Why did you let Nunnally be a Viceroy? Isn't she supposed to be a figurehead?" V.V. asked as he glanced over at his younger sibling.

"She hopes to rebuild Euphemia's dream… The fact that nobody will trust such a dream anymore renders her harmless enough even if Schneizel is willing to entertain it for the moment." He informed the immortal.

It was true after all, over a million Japanese had _eagerly_ gone with Zero despite Nunnally's earnest attempt during the last go around, understandably suspecting another trap despite the massacre having been entirely Lelouch's fault for misusing his Geass. The girl may be a year older, but she was still naïve enough to try like the last time.

"Do you think he'll attempt to intervene?" V.V. asked, entirely unaware of Charles's foreknowledge. Something the Emperor was thankful for, he knew full well that V.V. would attempt to give him C.C.'s code to ensure both would remain even if he knew Ragnarok was doomed to fail horribly otherwise.

It was through careful half-truths that V.V. hadn't questioned his continued active involvement in the affairs of Britannia even after all this time.

Still, he and C.C. had argued more than enough about how close she should remain, if V.V. sensed an opening he could try to force Ragnarok through sooner than either of them desired by being impulsive. Which would be disastrous.

"Knowing my son, he will." The Emperor confirmed.

The 'older' of the two harrumphed. "We'll see…" V.V. intoned as he gazed off into the distance.

Charles's lips twisted into a smirk._ "Oh we'll see big brother… We'll see… But the ball is now firmly in C.C.'s court to see that at least some part of my plan succeeds."_

* * *

**June 13, 2019 ATB.**

**San Diego Naval Base, Britannian Homeland.**

C.C. frowned as she looked over at the carriers docked quayside at North Island from her vantage point in an office in the cityside naval administration building, her helmet tucked under her arm.

"And you're certain about this Prime Minister?" She inquired as she watched a pair of Marine UV-1s transit over the shoreline from NAAS Imperial Beach towards MCAS Santa Ana to the North, the clean lines of the immense seawall, which protected the hive city of San Diego and its surroundings from tsunami events _and _naval attack, towering in the distance.

["Undoubtedly, Your Eminence. Baiting the Chinese to attack the Soviets by promising them the return of Manchuria and Mongolia is our soundest strategy for the region at this time."] Schneizel replied calmly over an audio only call, C.C. using software to modulate her voice similarly to her mask's vocoder. She had no doubt that given the chance, Schneizel would be attempting to discover her true identity for when he began his power play.

Had Lelouch not died in a pink sphere of destruction over Tokyo, with her own emotional vulnerability combined with Marianne manipulating her further screwing up her mental state and leading her to take the plunge and thus _willingly_ partake in Ragnarok, then it would've been inevitable the two favored sons of Charles zi Britannia would've collided at some point.

As it happened, everything went to hell instead.

Schneizel would find nothing regardless; her true identity wasn't even a listed as a citizen in her own _birth_ country back in Europa due to her temporal age, let alone Britannia. If anything, it would distract at least some of his people from more _dangerous_ secrets so she didn't worry about it all that much.

Secrets such as Geass, even now she had the inkling suspicion that what occurred at Tokyo and beforehand between Lelouch and Suzaku had been the result of his manipulations. Or that was about as much as she'd uncovered from discussing the matter with Lelouch and Suzaku via the collective before Ragnarok went down. Part of a final request Charles had 'granted' her to get some closure even though he believed that Ragnarok would succeed the way he intended it to.

_That_ self-assurance was wiped from him quickly enough.

["Given Lord Shiang's betrayal, we cannot afford significant losses on the Soviet front, at least not until R2 and Drone Sutherland production ramps up enough that we can hold human soldiers and more sapient Reploids in reserve."] The Second Prince explained. ["Otherwise the Europans may be able to push out of the stalemate we've managed via our control of the Maginot line."]

"He who controls Manchuria controls Northern China, he who controls Northern China controls _all_ of China." She recited from an old quote in a book she'd read once.

["Most certainly, which is why they cannot refuse. An arranged marriage between Odysseus and Empress Tianzi would've been exceedingly awkward for all parties involved bar the Eunuchs anyways, especially since Her Majesty appears to be a pre-teen rather than her true age of fourteen years."] Schneizel conceded. ["This is the modern era, not the 1300's, such an age discrepancy simply isn't civilized. Perhaps Castor or Pollux would be better suited?"]

"Perhaps." C.C. conceded as she frowned, in the past timeline, the attempted alliance with China had been to simply deny their populace and resources to Zero.

Though in that timeline, _Russia_ had been Euro Britannia for some unfathomable reason that even _she_ couldn't remember, meaning that the loss of China hadn't been so important.

Now, with the presence of the Soviet Union combined with Euro Britannia being relatively weak, there were strategic implications for alluring them to Britannia's side that went _further_ than the Black Rebellion or adding more areas to Britannia.

She did admit, Sino Britannia had a nice ring to it as well for some odd reason.

"Very well then. Send me the memo once you have everything handled."

["Of course, Your Eminence."] Schneizel replied as the line cut out.

She clicked her tongue, she had initially thought little about the curveball of the USSR, having been more focused on Reploid technology due to its greater overall impact.

And then Charles had reminded her that one of the known gates to C's world lay just east of the Urals. It had been absurdly easy to gain access to it the previous time around. This time? The Soviets would spill an _ocean_ of Britannian blood and oil before they got there. For all the knocks the Red Army got about conscript soldiers and lower quality equipment, their elite formations and special forces invoked no jokes or laughter among the soldiers who knew their reputation. Those Soviet units who'd earned the coveted Guards or Spetnaz designations were _decisively_ competent, well equipped, and at times more than a match for their Britannian counterparts.

And god help someone who underestimated the resolve of the Russian populace once thoroughly pissed off, as the EU had failed to learn no less than _twice_ in a row due to internal political shenanigans, aided and abetted by the OSI's political action division, that made the worst of the Nobles look like geniuses.

This was also to say nothing about the disturbing implications of the Soviets possibly beating Britannia to the FLEIJA, or at least something similar, as the total information blackout around a key section of Soviet territory implied due to the size of the area covered.

Schneizel knew nothing as far she could tell, seemingly blissfully unaware of the Russians having WMD's with devastating potential far beyond chemical or biological agents waiting in the wings.

And they'd had over a year to build up a decently sizable arsenal as OSI's investigations into the Soviet budget discovered an increase in funding for a new category in the Soviet Black budget shortly after the Black Rebellion was crushed.

Naturally, Charles had made it _her_ problem, as any sign of him engaging more often in the affairs of state than he was already would probably tip off V.V. that something was wrong. And so far Marianne still remained as much of a wild card as ever, which caused the both of them no end of concern.

She _had_ noticed her statement to Lelouch at Tokyo and confronted her about it not long after. C.C. played it off as her trying to lead him on a wild goose chase, which she'd accepted for the most part.

Even if she technically played her part in Marianne's death by not warning her about V.V.'s intentions 'because it would aggravate the gods'.

She was seriously starting to get annoyed by the collective or the caretaker's avatar occasionally popping in to remind her about the limits of what she was allowed to do per her 'sentence of repentance'.

"Wonderful, everything gets more and more complicated than I'd like…" She groaned as she watched a destroyer sortie out of port for post refit sea trials, the ship's crew manning the rails as it departed.

Well, at least she wasn't inept. Even if the reveal of the Black Knight's military strength had left Britannia's military intelligence and think tanks reeling.

She herself had been caught off guard, having not expected such a dramatic buildup within a year and chalked _that_ up to the improved automation most industries enjoyed due to technologies derived from X, in addition to Mechaniloids and Reploids, but had adapted her plans nonetheless.

Which meant Lelouch likely had more equipment than personnel right now, ironic.

As she mused on the subject she remembered something. "Right… The fifteenth is when Nunnally is being sent back to Area 11…" She muttered softly before picking up a phone and dialing a number.

She put her helmet back on and sunk back into her other persona as the command office of an airbase picked up, Liath immediately pre-empting any statements the unfortunate staff NCO would make. **="This is Liath, I want Aquilla squadron ready to deploy for escort duty when the new Viceroy for Area 11 departs on the fifteenth, make sure they have their new aircraft ready. I'd hate for them to be suck in Skyfangs."=** She ordered.

["U… Understood your eminence! I'll inform the base commander immediately!"]

C.C. grinned behind her mask. _"I'll play your games Lelouch, but don't expect me to pull punches unless I believe it'd kill you otherwise."_

Of course, she fully expected Schneizel to have placed his _own_ curveballs to protect Nunnally, and honestly, she wanted to be pleasantly surprised for once.

* * *

**June 14, 2019 ATB.**

**Fresno Air Fleet Basin, Fresno, Britannian Homeland.**

Immense wings locked into place as a Britannian _Morrigan_-class air carrier's float system thrummed to life and lifted the now kilometer wide airship into the sky, followed by the equally massive _Dullahan_-class air battlecruiser, both flying wing craft ascending as their escorts and support ships began to take off one by one, numerous other airships undergoing overhauls, refueling, and construction throughout the basin.

General Andreas Darlton watched his new command take formation, fighters sortieing from the nearby airbase and beginning to enter the landing circuit for the carrier, VTOLs and Float-equipped Knightmares doing the same for the other vessels.

"It's odd, I'd never thought I'd see command of an air force unit again." The bronze skinned man noted with some amusement.

"Spent too much time on the ground Darlton?" A familiar voice asked him.

Turning, he saluted Cornelia, whom had Guilford at her side. "Perhaps so, Your Highness. Anyways we're about ready to deploy." He reported.

Cornelia nodded at him. "Very well then." She acknowledged before speaking again. "Darlton, keep her safe." She requested softly.

The man snapped to parade rest. "I won't allow any harm to come to her highness. Moreover, in the event the airship _is_ breached, we've already prepared some of the newer submodels to serve as her bodyguards." He stated calmly.

"Are such precautions necessary?" Guilford inquired, glancing over at his Princess.

"With Zero? I'm almost tempted to draft the rest of the high-end C-Line units for this operation." Cornelia replied candidly.

"I doubt Stadtfeld Chemicals or the Imperial Mining Concern would take kindly to you poaching Acid Corvus or Dig Scorpion, nor would Camelot's Materials Division willingly part with Inferno Kitsune. And they're not the only ones." Darlton pointed out.

Cornelia's look turned sour at the mention of Inferno Kitsune. "Yes, I see _two_ problems there."

"My apologies Your Highness but DARPA believed that appropriating Eleven Culture would serve as a propaganda element, though I believe that's more of an excuse for the fact they can't exactly call a multi-tailed fox-woman anything other than a Kitsune or one of their mainland equivalents due to there being no real counterpart outside Asia." Darlton explained. At their confusion he added. "I've read up on the briefs."

"Hmph, hopefully they'll be less defective than the Maverick Hunters, at least eight ranking officers and hundreds of their personnel going Maverick due to inadequate systems security was crippling enough without public opinion also turning against them. A shame Repliforce has been so busy as a result even with their expansion, I quite enjoyed working with Colonel. It was enjoyable having another competent individual outside my command who wasn't Liath around for a change." The Princess said candidly as she glared across the way at one of the admin buildings.

"Didn't we all, your highness?" Darlton replied with a soft grin on his face, Guilford chuckling in reply.

Cornelia chuckled as well. "That we did Darlton, that we did."

* * *

**June 14, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights HQ meeting hall, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

The members of the Black Knights who'd fought in Tokyo and prior chattered idly as they awaited at the foot of a stage.

"What's taking so long?" Tamaki grumbled. "This is freaking bullshit!"

"Shut up Tamaki!" Inoue snapped at him from the stage, her burn scars and the unbuttoned JASDF officer's jacket she wore over her Black Knights service uniform, with the sleeves handing over her arms, adding to the intimidation effect. "You running your mouth like that was the reason for half our morale issues!"

Tamaki yelped and shut his mouth while Sugiyama winced at how Inoue had changed from the gentler person he knew back before the Black Rebellion went south.

Zero stepped out onto center stage, silencing the murmurs.

="I know many of you have one concern on your minds, Tokyo. And allow me to address it."= Zero announced to the crowd. ="I offer _no_ excuses for my conduct. Enemy special forces had distracted my attention by striking at people whose safety I was to have ensured in the chaos, diverting my attention at a critical point in the battle. This, combined with my prior lack of sleep and stress from the leadup to the events at the SAZ, in _addition_ to what occurred there, severely impacted my ability to make sound judgement of developing situations."= Zero explained to the shocked Black Knights, whom had honestly expected him to divert blame or even just blow them off completely. ="All I can do now is hope that you can find it in you to trust in me and my plans to liberate Japan, and the rest of the world, from the tyranny of the strong. Zero may be a symbol, but they are a symbol only as capable as the individual playing it."=

With that, the masked man fell silent, the crowd beginning to break into murmurs.

Ohgi was the first to collect himself, striding up to the stage and addressing the others. "Well if Zero's willing to own up to his mistakes, doesn't that make him still suited to be our leader?" He asked the other Black Knights. "Doesn't that prove he's learned from what happened at Tokyo!?"

Todoh nodded sagely as he joined Ohgi. "I agree, a strong man admits mistakes to themselves, a stronger man admits their mistakes to others. If anything this proves Zero's worth as a leader, only by accepting responsibility for their own faults can one truly advance as a person!"

There was some more murmuring from the crowd, the veterans among the Black Knights discussing among themselves in small groups before as usual, Tamaki opened his mouth first.

"Yeah, let's hear it for Zero!" Tamaki shouted. "Zero! Zero! Zero! Zero! Zero! Zero!"

The chant began to spread throughout the crowd, through the newcomers and devoted first, then the veterans. Dozens, then hundreds joining in to chant Zero's name.

Behind his mask, Lelouch smiled softly. _"No longer shall I view their lives as mere objects with which to gain victory. By treating my soldiers as utterly expendable pawns, I was no better than Britannia, no better than _him_. That shouldn't be how Zero is, it should _never _have been so…"_

"_And I owe it all to C2. Her fury, even if I refused to accept it at the time, awoke this realization in me, that eventually there will come an impasse that Zero's commands may be refused because my troops no longer respect me or my abilities. Or worse, the secrets I hold could lead them to outright turn on me when provided with carefully prepared information."_ He thought.

A good leader would nip this in the bud as quickly as possible by trying to rebuild the rapport that had been destroyed, results would only placate people for so long before he misstepped severely enough for them to have good reason to doubt him. To doubt Zero.

That could _not_ be allowed to happen, not if they wanted to achieve victory over Britannia.

But deep down, Lelouch wasn't sure if _any_ amount of rapport would survive his most deeply kept secrets.

His origins and his Geass.

He'd gotten lucky with Urabe, and Shirley and Kallen were still loyal even if they were _still _trying to reconcile the radical differences between Lelouch Lamperouge and Zero. Something Nemo and C2 hadn't had much issue with. The former being indifferent and the latter just getting pissed off by _both_ personas at times.

Thus, he needed to tread carefully, lest everything be lost.

Already he could see discontent among some of the Japanese veterans whom believed that the Black Knights was a _Japanese_ insurgent group, already they'd had to put up with accepting Chinese and Britannians, to them the new influx of people and Reploids from around the globe was all but intolerable.

So far it was just idle whispering, but he knew how quickly it could go from that to rebellion if he didn't get a handle on the situation.

_"I'll need to tell Diethard to keep these people under observation."_ He thought warily. _"There's no telling the kind of damage they could do if they decide to launch a mutiny."_

* * *

**June 14, 2019 ATB.**

**X's Apartment, Arcadia City, Australia.**

C2 yawned as she continued to watch the news.

It wasn't really as useful as SIGINT sometimes, but Diethard had mentioned several times that people often revealed surprises to the media during press conferences or on TV in general that had been kept under the radar.

Though, to be fair, Lelouch did that often enough that she should've made sure to do it without reminders.

That and she was bored as hell, and nothing good was on anyways. Charles zi Britannia had held an impromptu speech for the media, but it was his typical pompous affair about 'the lies of equality and the rule of strength' or some bullcrap and was of little note otherwise to the Reploid aside from him calling Zero out as a hypocrite for choosing war, an arena where he who was _mightier_ rather than who was_ righter_ won.

She honestly had to agree with him there. Logically speaking, war was about a nation's ability to efficiently and effectively bring its manpower, technical, and industrial capacity to bear on the enemy. Righteousness was all too often simply a shroud to get people to fight harder.

She blinked as another notification of a breaking news broadcast played. "What? Two in one day, this can't be good news for us..." She whispered softly, eyes narrowing.

["We bring you live to the Western Imperial Palace, where Executrix Liath is holding a surprise press conference."] A Hi-TV news reporter announced as dozens of cameras were pointed at the podium where Liath stood, over a dozen of her 501st troopers standing at attention around the stage, members of a Royal Guard unit that she didn't recognize standing at their posts as well, bearing the same RF-T Pattern Armor that had been tested by the 501st during the First Rebellion and was now standard issue throughout the various Royal Guard units in addition to the Imperial Guard, though with standard orange-yellow visors and violet trimming on white instead of low-reflective black visors and the white and blue colors of their contemporaries.

The heraldic symbol these new royal guards bore on their shoulder armor was somewhat familiar but she couldn't place where she remembered it from.

Then it hit her and her eyes widened in realization.

The Ganymede.

The symbol on its chest.

That emblem was the crest of the vi Britannia line. And unless Lelouch had another sibling he didn't know about, there was only one possible explanation for why a guard had been formed for that line.

_"Oh **no**."_

[**="It is with great pleasure that I announce the return of a member of the Imperial Family to the fold."=**] Liath proclaimed as C2 felt an uneasy pit deepen in her DNA soul, X giving her a worried look as he walked over.

"What's wrong?" He whispered, being one of the few to know the true identities of the Lamperouge siblings via Dr Cain, who'd been a mentor to Marianne in her youth before being forced to flee Britannia when X was uncovered owing to the very real threat of the military strongarming him into developing Reploids as weapons.

Her own experiences proved his paranoia justified.

Anyways, X had learned the truth about this when he and a detachment of the 17th Elite Unit, via Cain, had been called in by Lelouch to rescue her at 'Clovisland' after she'd been ambushed by Gareth and Mao, the human one, at Ashford while out of armor.

Regardless, X didn't know much about them otherwise, and thus didn't recognize the crest like she had.

The whir of a wheelchair's motors confirmed C2's worst fears as Liath spoke up again. **[="Today, we welcome Princess Nunnally vi Britannia back to the land of the living!"=]** The executrix declared as Nunnally rolled up to the podium from the shadows behind, much to the shock of the media.

C2 blinked, only barely recognizing her due to her hairstyle and the obvious. The young girl… No, young _woman_, apparently having undergone quite the growth spurt in the past year or so, to the point that if she very much resembled some of the pictures Nunnally had shown her of Marianne Lamperouge in her youth.

She was still blind and crippled, nothing could change that, aside from excessively invasive surgery for the latter as she and Lelouch had no solutions on countering a possible Geass command.

Nunnally smiled earnest and spoke up, C2 noting her voice had changed a bit and had become noticably more mature. Likely due to puberty, the girl had been thirteen when they'd first met, her birthday missed due to the Black Rebellion. She was nearly _sixteen_ now.

C2 would physically remain the same throughout her 'life' unless she got an overhaul... Some part of her irrationally felt cheated. Everyone she knew who wasn't a Reploid would age and mature over time before eventually dying, changing all the way. She was static, unchanging.

A machine.

It made her feel hollow and lifeless in comparison.

She pursed her lips as Nunnally spoke. ["Thank you Executrix Liath, it's good to be back."] Nunnally stated innocently. ["I shall do my best to serve Britannia and _all_ of her peoples."]

She probably still had rose tinted memories of her siblings, before the realities of office and internal competitions between eachother and the nobles slowly turned them into monsters.

Euphie likely hadn't helped with that in all honesty, especially with her inexplicable, to everyone who wasn't aware of Geass, heel-face-turn to full on genocide at the SAZ unveiling courtesy of Lelouch's immense fuckup.

The media was _still _stunned speechless. Here, presented before them, was one of two the royals Britannia had claimed had been _killed_ in what was now Area 11 nearly a decade ago, the incident which had _instigated_ their conquest of Japan.

C2 began to worry if this would lead to speculation that Lelouch was alive as well.

**[="As of this moment, Princess Nunnally will be taking the role of Viceroy of Area 11 from acting Viceroy Anderson, whom had held the post after Viceroy Calares had been killed during Storm Eagle's attack on the Tokyo Settlement. She will thus be leaving for her new post in the coming days with the Knight of Seven escorting her, with the Knights of Six and Three aiding him in maintining a vigil until her rule is secured over the area. That is all."=] **Liath informed the media before wheeling about and leading Nunnally away, her soldiers holding back the media as they suddenly regained their senses and began shouting questions.

"_Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, __**FUCK!**__"_ C2 thought as she tried to avoid panicking, she knew damn well that Lelouch had probably just had an actual heart attack or something upon seeing the news.

A text from Nemo confirmed her suspicions. Only three words.

[RETURN ASAP, TOTAL BREAKDOWN.]

"Shit… Sorry X… I need to go..." She hissed as she hid her phone from sight.

He nodded at her. "You need to get your things?"

"Eh, keep ahold of them, makes it easier to visit if I have stuff on hand." She replied as she stood up and walked to her room, pulling her white body glove out from a drawer and undressing before slipping it on, reattaching her legs shortly thereafter before materializing her armor from cyberspace and walking out of the room.

"See you again soon, hope it's not us shooting eachother." She told X before giving him a quick peck on the lips and then transervering out.

X sighed. "Just once, can we go a _week_ without something popping up?" He bemoaned.

As if the universe planned to spite him he too got an alert, in his case from HQ at Hunter Base.

[PREPARE FOR TRANSFER TO AREA 11 WITH SEVENTEENTH UNIT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. ACKNOWLEDGE.]

"Fuck my life." He groaned.

* * *

**AN: Skipped the frying pan and straight into the fire here, to be fair, I was building up to this moment for a while, though don't expect it to go like R2.**

**Also yeah, the UFN flag is pretty different here. As iconic as it is, it doesn't exactly pronounce 'we represent world peace.' So essentially, it's a less stylized version of the dove from the canon UFN flag superimposed over a variant of the globe and olive branches seen on the UN flag. The canon flag is now going to be the flag for the diplomatic corps of the UFN, while the organization proper will utilize the new flag.**

**Since the UFN is practically the UN but not utterly useless to the point of hypocrisy because it maintains militarized, legal, and reputational means to uphold its laws (nor will it let countries notorious for abusing human rights on key committes out of a desire for them to 'improve themselves', really dropped the ball there with letting the PRC aboard.), though not entirely at the expense of its member nations as hinted here (most nations would refuse to agree to permanently disband their armed forces except under duress, which would build long term resentment from some powers a la Weimar Germany under the perception that they were being punished for the actions of others and therefore create a pilot light that would ignite future conflicts), it fits.**

**As for G.G., may or may not be relevant later on, though he is rather relevant to the continued existence of the USSR in this timeline.**

**And as for Lelouch's admission, he's **_**slowly**_** owning up to the fact he's made mistakes, a continuation of the theme I was going for in X1 by virtue of his interactions with C2. But it's Lelouch, he's not really good at this stuff since his self-destructive nature (He hinted at his own messianic death as early as R1 episode 5, by using the White Knight taking the Black King as a metaphor for Zero Requiem or at least his initial imagining of it.) means that in canon, by the time this is actually relevant it's far too late to actually convince people otherwise so it's just easier for him to go 'screw it' and just go along with whatever crap Suzaku or Schneizel or whomever are spouting.**

**Old habits do die hard, and even C2 totally losing her shit at him at Tokyo isn't enough to cause a drastic shift in his behavior beyond this. And I say this from personal experience with my own problems, the more I want to change how I act, the more entrenched it seems to get unless I receive a swift kick in the ass from life. And even then it's basically just one little habit at a time.**


	6. Turn 6: Battle over the Pacific

**AN: I just want to note that I find it kinda hilarious that Lelouch's English VA was the second **_**black**_** power ranger.**

**In hindsight it was almost like destiny that JYB ended up in both roles.**

**Also, equally hilarious is that JYB is a trained martial artist who did his own stunts in the '95 Power Rangers movie after his stunt double's leg got broken, while Lelouch is this unathletic guy who struggles to run decent distances without utterly exhausting himself.**

**On top of that, he's currently Capcom's go to guy for English dubbing for Zero for the Mega Man franchise.**

**What're the odds.**

**Anyways, I hate how the show decided to largely ignore the existence of energy fillers after season 1 because it screwed with the immense level of tech fuckery going on.**

**Shit like the Shinkiro, Lancelot Albion, or Guren SEITEN should either have multiple redundant batteries, prototype reactors, or a dramatically short operating time as the systems they're packed with would be energy hungry as all hell.**

**If it's the second power source, then they should be absurdly expensive and have immense upkeep requirements, but apparently they decided to forgo all of that in R2 because Bandai and Sunrise wanted to try and force the show into the mould of Gundam. Which is annoying because CG for all of its over-the-topness actually routinely treated Knightmares like weapons systems, even Lancelot and Guren despite their power were very well grounded in their limitations in R1, down to the Guren Mark II as a prototype unit being _very_ maintenance heavy as depicted in the episode 'Stage 17: Knight' while also being very bad outside close range battle and thus rendering it very situational and excessively tailored to someone who almost exclusively uses close combat tactics compared to the more versatile Lancelot.**

**Gawain was naturally where everything started going wrong but they made up for it by making it this clunky and ponderous long-range behemoth that can't CQC for shit and which almost got Lelouch _killed_ by Cornelia because of that (We all know that C.C. would've woken up in the wreckage sooner or later after her code revived her) if a Geassed Darlton hadn't intervened.**

**The director AFAIK apparently decided to spite them by going full in with the lensman arms race crap in R2, which aggravated a lot of fans who viewed it as too much like Gundam SEED and 00 as a result, and by making the since infamous betrayal episode, which as I've mentioned repeatedly was only recently redeemed by the remakes having the Black Knights not being complete morons hanging on Schneizel's every word and actually trying to seriously ask Lelouch what he was doing, which causes Kanon to step in with some Britannian troops and continue the chain of events leading to Zero Requiem.**

**That Ohgi, who has a _child_ by the time of the whole Zilkhstan affair, actually points a _loaded_ _gun_ at his own head in the R3 movie (even if in an alternate timeline) and is ready to kill himself out of guilt before Lelouch plainly tells him to knock it off is telling of how the former felt about the aftermath.**

**Anyways. Solar reactors, and reactors in general, are going to start becoming more common in the Code Reploid timeline after being proven by Repliforce's limited use of Knightmares (mostly for psychological warfare and keeping foreign intelligence agencies up at night) and the Gawain. It's going to be a slow buildup however as the former weren't used much due to the typical solar core used for Knightmares at the time simply not being able to supply enough power over long periods. While the latter utilized _multiple_ cores _and_ a backup energy filler to attempt to meet demand, and even then it had a relatively short operational time due to the Druid system, float system, blaze luminous, and hadron cannons sucking up power.**

**But energy filler equipped KMFs, particularly the Guren as the Lancelot Conquista now has a solar core and a separate power supply for its Hadron bazooka, are going to have to deal with shorter and shorter operational times until battery technology catches up.**

**Reviews:**

**Judeota\- Yeah, so far it's not looking good for C.C.'s prospects at getting back with Lelouch, at least in the romantic sense, which she's largely resigned herself to. Especially since this iteration of Lelouch forged that close connection with Nemo instead.**

**As for Suzaku, he's really not as bad as he was canonically, he still hates Lelouch due to him thinking that but at least Euphemia is still alive to potentially serve as a brake on him in the future.**

**I have plans regarding that by the way.**

**As for Charles's Geass, yes he probably would have the power to actually force Nunnally's eyes to stop working by making her brain think they don't. Lelouch and C2 don't know that, and Lelouch was only 10 when Charles Geassed her so it wouldn't have occurred to him to ask if they'd tried to open her eyes since he'd know nothing about apraxia of lid opening nor would he have paid much attention to it, having been tutored on ruling rather than medical knowledge and too blatantly pissed off at _everything_ to think clearly after having lost his mother and had his baby sister crippled in the same night, especially considering that it wouldn't be that long afterwards he'd confront his father over the cancellation of the investigation. So right now they're operating on assumptions about how powerful Charles's Geass is.**

**As for X and C2, yeah I'm angling towards a 'good ending' for them, but it's gonna take some bumps to get there.**

.

**undead3\- I apologize for the confusion, but I thought that the implication that Lelouch and co simply took the _Ikaruga_ back to India, where the Black Knights' bases are, was clear.**

**The _Yamato_ and the battlegroup now escorting her are still in transit around the coast of Africa, the EU having little choice but to let them pass anyways owing to their ongoing war with Britannia.**

**C.C. simply got to Australia via transerver, which is basically teleportation except that since it uses Cyberspace as a proxy, organic material does not survive the transition.**

**Ironically making it function similarly to the Thought Elevators.**

**Moving on, in this timeline the Black Knights have substantial facilities in India, to the point that they're openly producing their own airships and naval vessels through front companies owned by the Sumeragi and Kubouin concerns, with the Eunuchs looking the other way due to healthy bribes being paid to them given how corrupt those bastards are.**

**That the Black Knights are played up as being one of the primary reasons India managed to hold out against Maverick forces during the Uprising is a factor in why so many Indians are willing to help them.**

**In CG manufacturing mega-structures of any terrestrial scale is actually substantially easier than in our timeline, implied heavily by Britannia's construction of multiple settlement hive cities in Area 11 within a _decade_. Something inconciveable with IRL engineering and materials technology.**

**Reploids and Mechaniloids being introduced from 20XX hasn't hurt either for the sake of this fic and has in fact sped up such processes dramatically as they can work with much lower risk due to physical fatigue being largely structural on top of their greater strength and endurance.**

**So it's not unreasonable for a sizable number of airships and warships to be built within mere months rather than a timeframe of years.**

**I mean Lelouch somehow managed to pull around a million _high quality_ Zero costumes out of his ass in canon R2 at a moment's notice and had numerous airships ready for the Black Knights not long after taking China (whether they're Chinese or otherwise isn't known, though I doubt it since they didn't even have float technology aside from Shen Hu's air glide system until after the fall of the Eunuchs) so it's hardly the most egregious thing related to CG.**

**Most of the aquatic ships shown in Ch 5 were ex-JMSDF though, notably the _Sh__inano_, and have been hanging around since mid-X1, without which the Black Knights wouldn't have escaped Japan in force.**

**Though, as for the airships, not all of them were fully crewed owing to manpower shortages, not sure if I covered that already but if not then I will in chapter 7 or 8.**

**And since I showed them off solely via television broadcast, a little bit of smoke, mirrors, and video editing courtesy of Diethard and his people to confuse Britannian intelligence means that not_ all_ of those vessels, aircraft, and Knightmares are necessarily _real_, which I'll be bringing up more on later.**

**And finally, Rolo, I've got plans for him, may or may not result in his inevitable demise because I go for big overarching plot points and then fill in the details on the go but I've got plans.**

.

**AngelFaux-Glad you've been enjoying the story so far, I've admittedly learned a lot from writing X1 and the aborted interlude stuff (still trying to figure out what to do with that), which has helped immeasurably with my ability to improvise and produce material not determined by someone else's script, the Battle of Tokyo's sections that weren't focused on the main cast in particular was a good exercise in that. I've also been trying to keep characterization for major characters on point while also developing them beyond what they were in the show but it's a very fine balancing act indeed. Charles being the easiest to do so since there's a lot of 'what could have been' with him due to Ragnarok being the entire focus of his life later on.**

* * *

"_Sun shines, grass grows, birds sing, fish swim, and Yellow Squadron is _always_ goddamn fucking late."_-Graffiti found on the inside of a port-a-potty at a Royal Britannian Marine Corps FOB in Area 11.

"_I don't want to talk about that day, flying wasn't really my strong suit for a while and I just made myself look like a total idiot… Turns out that Knightmare optimized control surfaces and OS extensions don't translate well to Reploids whose controls inputs are far closer to the human mind. Who'd've thunk it?"_-C2, during a partially botched interview about the Second Black Rebellion.

"_I have never personally witnessed _anything _that was meant for combat fly worse than C2 that day, no wonder she refused to touch Rakshata's Reploid use air-glide packs afterwards. Which is fair, since she's a far more useful ground combatant anyways given that Reploids modified for flight are relatively inefficient compared to purpose-built units or larger flight-capable machines. Or at least that was the case before Asplund worked his magic."_-Kyoshiro Todoh.

"_It's far easier to adapt Reploid flight control programs to other Reploids than it is to adapt Knightmare flight control programs to them. I honestly don't know _what_ Rakshata was thinking back then."_-Lloyd Asplund, excerpt from _Miracles of Engineering: A definitive technical guide to High-End Reploids and their Robot Master Progenitors._

* * *

**June 14, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

C2's metal footfalls clanked ominously as she strode down the hallway, having been waylaid for nearly half an hour by Tamaki regarding a series of new shipments of Knightmares that Rakshata was insistent on either her or Zero signing off on for whatever reason. Nemo walked in lockstep with her, wearing her new Black Knights 'uniform', impractical and revealing as _that_ was, particularly on the legs.

"How bad is he?" C2 asked her finally, cutting straight to the chase.

"Bad is an _understatement_, I've got Kallen and Shirley watching him to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid while Urabe's guarding the door." Nemo informed her. "He wasn't on base when he saw either. Shirley managed to drag him away but she lost track of him for about ten minutes before Kallen managed to find him in a seedier district."

C2 clicked her tongue. "Tell me he hasn't tried to use Refrain or something…"

Nemo glared sideways at her. "He's not _that_ far gone yet, but…" She whispered something in the Reploid's 'ear', C2's eyes narrowing.

"So it's possible if his mental state deteriorates further." C2 finished for her as they paused their conversation, C2 thankful her metallic footfalls and the other ambient noise drowned out their conversation at longer distances as they passed a pair of Black Knights staff NCOs in service uniforms at an intersection, whom saluted, C2 and Nemo returning the gesture as they continued on.

"Indeed." Nemo confirmed once they were out of earshot. "Which is again, why I'm having those two redheads watch him. You're the only other person I know of who's gone through such a dramatic mental breakdown like this and you can get him out of it."

The Reploid resisted the urge to groan. "Oh yes, ask the Reploid who's still mentally unstable and only recently got over serious 'mommy issues' and no psychological expertise on how to deal with the _human_ who's now forced to point a gun at his beloved baby sister due to his own declaration of war against Britannia." C2 snarked humorlessly. "That's _totally_ how that works."

"You know what I meant. You just need to treat him like you would any other time he's fucked up." Nemo replied sharply as they strode up to Zero's office, nodding at Urabe, who moved aside to let them pass.

* * *

Inside, Kallen and Shirley were standing over a nearly insensate Lelouch, the young man trembling in his seat, eyes distant.

C2 shoved her way past them and backhanded Lelouch into his seat with enough force to jolt his chair off the floor slightly.

"What the hell was that for!?" He yelled at her, hand on his throbbing cheek as blood trickled down his upper lip "You damn near broke my nose!"

C2 didn't see it that way, if anything his nose looked perfectly fine beyond the bleeding even though it _should_ have been broken by the impact.

She'd have to ask Nemo if that was related to his Geass at some point. But right now, her focus was on the _idiot_ and his self-loathing.

"It got you to stop sitting there and gazing off into space like a dead fish didn't it?" The Reploid sneered, as she hauled him out of his chair by the collar. "What happened to the arrogant asshole who decided that he could somehow _win_ at Tokyo two years ago by inciting cascading rebellions throughout Britannia's conquered territories once he'd shown off he captured Cornelia? Who managed to hand a _draw_ to her at Narita despite the force disparity? What happened to the man who stole the pride of the JMSDF out from under Britannia's nose not weeks ago in the immediate aftermath of him bringing down the most feared prison in all of Britannia to kickstart his new rebellion!? Who was confidant enough to tell off the _Emperor_ _of Britannia_ when he was just a _child_!? Who trudged through hell and back after Japan was invaded!? Did he go run and hide in his room because he's worried about facing down his little sister?!" She hissed at him.

"For god's sake if this is about her safety just fucking grow the_ fuck up_ Lelouch, if anything Nunnally's safer _with_ Britannia since she's going to have Suzaku watching over her like a _hawk_ whenever possible. She's also much more capable than you give her credit for either. And on top of it all, you're _better_ than this and all of us know it." C2 admonished him, releasing him from her grip and letting him fall back into his seat before pulling one of his drawers open, withdrawing the vial of refrain and an injector vial from it without looking away from him.

"I'm not even going to ask how, when, or where you got this. But if I **ever** see you even_ attempt_ to inject this shit into your veins I'm ordering Kallen to _castrate_ you with a blowtorch." The Reploid threatened as she briefly switched to the Torch Soul to incinerate both objects in her grip, letting the ash fall through her fingers and onto the floor before stomping it out with a metallic clang, Kallen and Shirley gaping in shock at the threat. "This is the kind of double-faced shit that makes me want to punch your stupid face Lelouch. _Stop_."

"B…" He began weakly to try and defend himself.

"Just _stop_… Alright… For the love of god, breakdowns like this aren't even making me angry anymore… It's just getting depressing." C2 sighed, the anger draining from her voice as the mental exhaustion set in. "I'm _tired_ of getting pissed off at you because you just lock up or make some horrendous mistake or miscalculation… I spent a goddamn _year _wallowing in my anger over you and all I gained was an understanding of how _I'm_ just as big of a hypocrite. Sure, I was pissed off about it all when we recovered you, but that's because I _finally_ had a chance to vent my frustrations… Now that that's out of the way I can't bring myself to keep actively being angry at you…" She admitted. "Especially not after the shit I went through in the uprising…"

The Reploid strode over to the couch and flopped down onto it, a hand on her helmeted forehead as the furniture groaned in protest at the sudden dumping of her weighty metal form onto it. "You think _I'm_ any happier about Nunnally being one of our opponents?" She asked wearily after retracting her visor, something she'd rarely done in full armor.

"No… You wouldn't be." He conceded after a moment, the other three just looking between the two, Shirley and Kallen unsure as to what to say or do. Nemo had long realized that C2 and Lelouch had an unusual connection through their emotional trauma, a sort of mutual understanding only they truly comprehended. Different from her connection with him as Code Bearer and contractor respectively, but not entirely dissimilar. In truth it was closer to a pair of soldiers with PTSD connecting over their experiences.

She pursed her lips pensively, that the world was in such a condition that two so young had to suffer so much. A Reploid who hadn't even been online for a month of overall time when she'd first taken a life, that after being ripped apart and put back together improperly in both mind and body at the command of a Britannian Prince just to study her. And a teenager who'd already been through the scarring experiences that were the assassination of his mother and the Invasion of Japan at the tender age of _ten_ before upping his own game to _fratricide _and several counts of _attempted _filicide seven years later. The two of them being forced to face some of the worst it had to offer so early was disgusting.

Not to mention the living hell that had been _her_ life under the Order's thumb as a mere 'experimental' clone of C.C., to be used for the study of the limits of what a Code Bearer could tolerate without V.V. or C.C. having to volunteer.

Probably the main reason she absolutely _loathed_ both of the other Code Bearers. When she encountered him, G.G. at least admitted went around and did whatever the hell he wanted without regard to the consequences because he wanted to live life to its fullest and most absurd given the state of the world.

Ironic considering what he had a hand in creating. Though that was a story she hadn't quite gotten out of him before he vanished as was typical of him.

As she re-directed her attention back to the conversation, Nemo considered Shirley and Kallen fortunate that what they endured wasn't_ nearly_ as bad was what the rest of them had been subjected to. Losing family was harsh, but they'd had support structures in place to help cope.

She, C2 and Lelouch didn't.

"I've been letting myself wallow in my own despair every time something goes wrong, every time I assume I know better because I get overconfident, and it undoubtedly shakes the faith _all_ of my subordinates have in me…" Lelouch mumbled, knowing full well it was really only due to his results that Ohgi and the others were following him again despite his speech, and he _still_ needed to make time to address the remaining concerns of his staff officers regarding his sudden drop back into secrecy after beginning to open up to them earlier in the last rebellion.

"Don't say you're sorry, just get over it, if you apologize, I'm going to have to punch you." C2 only half-joked, trying to lighten the mood.

He chuckled softly as he reclined in his seat. "Still, we have to do _something _about this, this was a calculated move on Liath's part, which means we need to move quickly."

Shirley frowned before raising her hand.

"You could just speak freely Shirley, we're not students anymore, and this is hardly a formal setting." He pointed out to her.

The ginger blushed in embarrassment as Kallen snickered at her expense before speaking. "Well, wouldn't Suzaku be expecting you to try and rescue Nunna?" Shirley inquired, Kallen rubbing her chin.

"Yeah, this is the perfect bait for you, barring dangling the Emperor from a line like fishing bait of course." She agreed.

Lelouch picked up the white bishop off his desk's chessboard and inspected the piece, mentally overlaying Nunnally onto it due to her powerful role as a supporting element. "Which is why we're going after the bait. Let them think we've been lured in. And then we spring a very different kind of trap." He said as he placed it down next to the White Knight and proceeded to move the Black King and then all three of the Black Queens he had on hand directly in front of the two pieces.

C2 crossed her right leg over her left one with some effort given the size of her shin plating, a smug grin on her face. "_That's _the Lelouch we know."

Nemo smirked. "You want to remove many of the enemy's units from the board?" She asked, despite understanding that was indeed his intent.

"If it_ is _a trap, then there's no better opportunity at the moment to do so. Suzaku would be problematic given the Geass command I placed on him back at Shikane Island, but I'll settle for removing obstacles _other_ than a round. Even if just regular Knightmares or fighters given the time those'll take to replace, or perhaps simply gaining intel on enemy aerial capabilities. Knowing who's arranging this I wouldn't be surprised if we fail most of our objectives." Lelouch chuckled darkly as he glanced over at both White Kings and the White Queen as they sat on the board, all three sitting much farther to the back.

"After all, if you want to entrap _me_, you don't send your second best if you can help it."

"Hang on! What about Nunna!" Shirley yelped, surprised that Lelouch had no intention of rescuing her. "Wouldn't Britannia be using her!?"

"That's the thing… If Nunnally was a mere political pawn, why make her a Viceroy? Why give her a position with _actual _political power? Even if only over a vassal state?" Lelouch asked Shirley. "It doesn't make sense. We all know that Cornelia _specifically_ created the office of Sub-Viceroy to keep Euphemia placated for a time since it sounded official but had no real power independent of the Viceroy's authority. If Britannia wished to make her a pawn that is how it would've been done."

Kallen twitched almost imperceptibly at the mention of Euphemia, C2 wondering if she'd put two and two together regarding Euphemia's drastic change and Lelouch's Geass.

If she had, someone needed to nip her assumptions in the bud, and _fast_.

But given that she hadn't confronted Lelouch about it, C2 was inclined to believe that she hadn't made that logical leap, or had assumed that the Reploid had already ripped into him over it.

"You think she's doing this of her own accord?" Nemo asked, eyes narrowing.

"A lot can happen in a year, if Nunnally is indeed my sister… Then she undoubtedly has her own masks to hide things from even me…" He mused with some concern, the mere thought of Nunnally doing so was disconcerting even if it was true, as Lelouch hadn't wished for his sister to fall into darkness like he had. "And either the Emperor doesn't care about her having this position, or he's willing to accept the political damage she could cause. Either does not bode well for us."

"So, what's the plan for her then…?" C2 asked.

"Leave her be. But if we have no other choice then we'll bring her with us." Lelouch informed them.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

Suzaku strode into Nunnally's chambers aboard the _Dullahan_-class battlecruiser, HIMAS _Lohengrin_, as the vessel transited amidst its battlegroup en-route to Area 11.

"Viceroy, we're nearing the outer edge of Area 11's airspace, just another hour to go." He informed Nunnally as he stood at attention.

Nunnally turned to face him, despite her blindness she had a high sense of spatial awareness, almost as if she had a sixth sense. "Ah, Suzaku, is it almost time for our arrival?" She inquired as she tilted her head over to the flowers.

"Not quite, I'm asking you to please remain calm for when the Black Knights appear." He told her.

"Why would the Black Knights show up?" She inquired, tilting her heard worriedly.

"_Because Lelouch can't resist the chance to get you back."_ Suzaku thought before speaking again. "Because Zero may attempt to take you hostage for one reason or another." He replied, a half truth given what he believed about Lelouch. "I'll be heading over to the _Avalon_ to prepare for combat." He informed her.

The entire plan didn't sit right with him, but if it got him a shot at Lelouch, then who was he to complain.

She nodded at him. "Take care then, Suzaku."

He nodded back. "I will."

And with that, he turned and left.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**Pacific Airspace.**

Lelouch frowned as he looked over the image of the battlegroup ferrying Nunnally to Area 11.

"Twelve _Caerleon_-class destroyers, four _Grandberry_-class destroyer leaders, four _Logres_-class cruisers, one _Dullahan_-class battlecruiser, _Lohengrin_, one _Mercia_-class EW/AEW vessel, one _Morrigan_-class fleet carrier, the _Avalon_ and a pair of _Grandberrys_ and an additional _Logres_ containing Suzaku's entourage, four air transports full of ground troops, and six replenishment ships…" He observed, noting the formation had a mixed CAP of Spitfires, FV-6 Kestrels, F-14 Skyfangs, F-15 Spitefuls, and float equipped Vincent Wards, Gloucesters, Brightons, Gareths, and Vincent Command types up, several E-2 Hawkeyes wearing RBAF markings were flitting about to provide standoff AEW coverage as well.

IFFs naturally gave away their names, but he could care less about anything other than the flagship.

Given the focus of the fleet around the Battlecruiser, and the Britannian tendency to put VIPs on the most heavily armed and protected vessel in a given fleet for their own safety, the fact that Nunnally was aboard a ship named after the German iteration of the Swan Knight was either coincidence or someone's idea of a sick joke given he couldn't reveal his true identity to the masses otherwise the mystique and power of Zero would be lost forever.

He clicked his tongue, briefly thinking Suzaku behind it but just as quickly rejecting the thought. Suzaku was blunt about things in his typical way and Lelouch knew he wouldn't bother to be this eloquent just to insult him.

Which meant the Emperor or Liath had assigned that ship.

Against that he'd arrayed the _Ikaruga_, the _Minegumo_-class carrier _Fujin_, eight _Kamikaze_-class aerial destroyers, a _Shinobi_-class electronic warfare and support ship, the _Yamakaze_-class aerial battlecruiser _Raijin_ and three _Yakaze_-class aerial cruisers, with three replenishment vessels and four air transports of their own behind the wedge.

In theory not an unsubstantial force, but in reality this was the vast bulk of his air fleet so far, making this operation a substantial risk for his forces given most of these vessels had only been recently commissioned after the raid on Pendragon that freed him and many still had kinks to work out. He was lucky they had built up so much support in India otherwise all of this would be impossible.

As he looked at the TACNET depictions of the two forces he remembered that only reason they hadn't been detected despite their closure rate was due to Gefjun interference.

And it was extremely unlikely they'd be keeping that specific advantage after this battle unless dedicated EW vessels were brought along.

Likewise, Lelouch had no idea who was in overall command of the enemy forces, he doubted it was Suzaku though, as it wasn't his style to be the leader.

He had a few bets given the effective defensive layering and positioning of the CAPs and escort vessels to provide maximum defensive coverage while minimizing friendly fire, one of which was Andreas Darlton, the man had oddly enough been an Air Force officer before being poached by Cornelia for her personal troops and was one of the more politically moderate ranking officers who still saw field service.

It was most probable, given Nunnally's own naivety and bleeding heart tendencies like Euphie, Cornelia's deference to her favored siblings, and the likely refusal of the Air Force to put its ships under Navy, Army, or god forbid, Marine, command, that Darlton had been assigned to head the flotilla. The well organized and responsive defensive posture was a signature of 'The Shield of the Empire'.

Which meant that the Glaston Knights would be present… Upping the minimum number of Lionels they'd have to face to _eight_ alongside the Lancelot itself, plus Darlton's Bors command unit if he chose to take the field.

Given that Darlton knew roughly about Geass and the fact Lelouch had ordered him to attack Cornelia… He was not looking forward towards boarding that Battlecruiser, or any of those ships, in the slightest. If _anything_ went wrong, the Britannians would probably gun him down as they would undoubtedly have a sizable number of Reploids aboard and in close proximity to critical areas on the ship, rendering any use of Geass irrelevant. He briefly cursed Liath's intervention back in Tokyo, as it made his job here all the harder, and he wondered if his forces were sufficient to even accomplish their primary objective.

No, a rapid assault into the core of their fleet would leave them reeling for a brief but critical window, so they had to move quickly before Darlton could allocate his assets to stop them.

Lelouch at least counted himself fortunate that Suzaku hadn't come to prominence sooner, otherwise he'd have more of the coveted production Lancelots and their exceedingly skilled pilots to call upon.

Well, at least until the Britannians churned out another production run to counter him. He had no doubt that was coming.

He'd have to see whether his theory was correct, but on a more concerning note, his gut was giving him an unsettling feeling about the _Morrigan_ in the enemy formation, as if he was biting off more than he could chew by simply showing up. Still, he had the three assault landing airships he'd brought along preparing a little 'surprise' for the Britannians in the offchance it was needed.

"Are all forces ready?" He inquired over a comms channel.

["Affirmative."] Ohgi acknowledged. ["We're awaiting your instructions Zero."]

"Very well then, we go in as planned, fighters are to keep enemy air power occupied, electronic warfare aircraft and the ECM suites of the airships are to distract their air defenses, Knightmares and Ride Armors, both air-glide and gunship-borne will attempt to board their warships and shoot them down, or barring that, to render them incapable of engaging in combat while defending against enemy Knightmares and gunships. Squad Seven will accompany me inside the enemy command ship while the other forces hold the line."

["Repeat last Zero, did you just say _inside_ the enemy command ship?"] Todoh asked, surprised by his boldness in the face of such an overwhelming opposing force.

"Indeed, I'm going to have a _chat_ with the Viceroy to see if she's another typical Britannian." Lelouch replied. "And perhaps down a few elite Britannian troops in the process."

A half-truth, in actuality he wished to test Nunnally's resolve. And if forced to, be in position to retrieve her should the ship go down during the battle, though he doubted Darlton would be so careless.

He also wished to thin the numbers of the enemy's elite forces doing so, though he would settle for gaining intelligence on Nunnally's plans and cutting his losses if forced to as he'd mentioned to his inner circle.

"C2, get ready for your entry mission, and do try to _not_ critically damage the ship."

["I can make no promises if the Britannians prove excessively uncooperative."] C2 replied. ["But I'll try."] She added almost flippantly.

"That's all I can really ask of you." Lelouch chuckled. "All forces, engage once our decoy forces have absorbed as much incoming fire as possible!"

["ROGER!"]

* * *

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

"General Darlton! Incoming hostiles!" Someone relayed for the CIC.

The man narrowed his eyes at the twelve dots that were approaching, hostile airships. "The Black Knights. As expected." He grumbled. "Launch additional fighters, Knightmares, and gunships! Defend the fleet and her Highness!" The General ordered. "Ready interceptor missiles and activate CIWS guns! Load proximity fused shells and fire anti-air missiles!"

He would not fail Princess Cornelia. Not this time.

"Yes, my lord!"

One of the operators frowned as dozens of smaller dots darted ahead of the main enemy formation, releasing missiles and acting as screening targets. The incoming fire being speared out of the sky by the Britannian defenses.

Shortly afterwards were blown out of the air by the wave of missiles that the fleet had just fired, even if some missed the sheer volume had simply left little room to maneuver.

But the way they flew ahead just didn't sit well with him. It was predictable, even their maneuver patterns were too precise, like they'd been...

Programmed.

"Zero isn't the type to just throw away men for no reason if he can avoid it..." Darlton muttered, initially assuming brainwashed pilots before his eyes widened in realization.

"Sir! Enemy drones just ate up our first wave of anti-air missiles! There had to be dozens of them!" An officer reported, confirming the General's suspicions.

_"I'll hand that to you Zero, using so many drones like that to conserve your manpower in the face of our Alpha Strike was smart, although I doubt you have the industrial capacity to repeat such a stunt for at least some time."_

At least he hoped so, intelligence was still waffling on how many of the assets Zero had shown off in his 'UFN' speech were real.

"Useless OSI twits." He snarled under his breath. The Black Knights had clearly proven to have an industrial capacity well above what the forecasts had shown, that air flotilla they were sending at him was all too real for his liking.

They even had a damn _Morrigan_ equivalent, which also closely resembled its Britannian counterpart even if there were substantial differences in design. Either the Black Knights had been inspired by the design.

Or that data breach at the Imperial Palace last year had been _egregiously_ downplayed in its severity.

Given the circumstances Darlton was inclined to believe the latter.

"All ships prepare for enemy boarding actions and close range combat with enemy airships and Knightmare Frames! Where the hell is that elite squadron!?" He snapped as he strode over to one of the banks of consoles manned by human and Reploid operators.

"Still in transit, they're refueling aboard a carrier right now!" A silver haired Reploid reported as she looked up from her screen.

Darlton pinched the bridge of his nose. "Marseille always shows up fashionably late doesn't he? Just like the man who trained him…" The man groused. "Notify sir Kururugi that he can launch whenever he wishes. And contact those two in Area 11! I'm not nearly prideful enough to refuse aid if I can get it!"

"At once sir!"

* * *

**Pacific Airspace.**

Galm Team's F-109s rolled in and dove straight into the fireworks, each aircraft loosing a pair of missiles at a group of Britannian Skyfangs, one of which suffered a hit and pulled away from the fight, trying to return to the carrier. One of Crow squadron's aircraft nailing it with a Sparrow before it could get back to the safety of Britannian CIWS coverage.

After the fighters came the Air Glide equipped standard and transformable Knightmares which moved in to engage while being backed by additional units, a mix of Akatsukis and Ronins hanging from Chinese made C-8 Knightmare transport VTOLS owing to a lack of air glide packs due to the Black Knights having been playing catch up to Britannia's float technology brought up the rear.

Scopedog series Ride Armors were also mixed throughout the lot, exclusively piloted by Reploids given the neural interface requirement.

Long range proximity fused cannon shots from the airships blew several of the transports and their cargos out of the sky while others were shot down by missiles that couldn't be distracted with chaffsmoke, ECM, or flares. The Guren Mark II, having been upgraded into its flight capable form, the Guren Hiyou, by Rakshata during a post-battle overhaul upon the unit's return from Pendragon, was flying ahead of the group and using its enhanced wave surger arm's shield function to block at least some of the incoming fire.

She grit her teeth as a Britannian air to air missile operating in home on jam mode shredded one of their gunships, which fell from the sky trailing smoke and flame. doomed by its own electronic countermeasures which provided a beacon leading the missile right to it.

"This is Q1 to all units! Move in and engage your assigned targets!" Kallen shouted as the Guren charged ahead.

Only to narrowly block an incoming hadron blast from the Lancelot Conquista as it sortied.

"Damn…" Kallen growled as Suzaku moved to engage her, the Guren blocking his VARIS shots as he danced around her at range, the Lancelot Conquista using its superior speed to evade the more maneuverable Guren as it tried to catch up, Kallen unable to fire the wave surger in beam mode for risk of friendly fire due to the chaotic air melee currently taking place as Eagle and Dragon squadrons with their F/A-27 Sakuras and Crow Squadron's F-110 Wraiths were currently engaged in a pitched dogfight with the defending Britannian Skyfangs and Spitefuls alongside Galm Team's F-109 Foxhounds.

Meanwhile her own Zero squad and its four Guren Mark I Flight Enabled types, three of their number having fallen the previous year fighting Mavericks, were busy dueling with a number of Lionels from Nunnally's Royal Guard and the Glaston Knights, the former of whose mere existence had surprised her. Not to mention the Akatsukis, Ryuuseis, Meigetsus and Ronins engaging in aerial battles with their Britannian counterparts, whom had held back to defend the fleet rather than charge ahead like idiots, some units touching down to engage Black Knights Machines that had landed on the Britannian airships directly.

That said only the Glaston Knights appeared to be battle hardened, and they'd quickly broke off to engage the Swords in a brief firefight before Kallen lost track of them.

Meanwhile with her, more than once she and Suzaku both narrowly avoided missiles and shells meant for other targets. Kallen swatting away slash harkens from the sharp forked forms of a pair of Spitfire VKMFs, which banked and flew away rather than try to engage her in close combat.

Clearly they had intelligent pilots behind the controls, Kallen snorting as she realized exactly how many idiots she'd fought with the Guren since the Black Rebellion.

Machine after machine fell from the sky trailing smoke, parachutes marking ejected cockpit pods and fighter pilots.

Others weren't so luck, being immolated with their craft or trapped inside as they spiraled helplessly towards the ocean surface and certain death.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the Shinkiro moving towards the hangar deck of the Britannian battlecruiser, which was spewing up a wall of flak at anything it could visually ID, the tiltrotor being used by Squad 7 following it in.

Then she noticed a white glint dive on the infiltration team. "ZERO! WATCH OUT ABOVE!" She screamed.

* * *

Lelouch barely had seconds to look up thanks to Kallen's warning before C2 intercepted the interloper, bashing a Pegasus themed anthro Reploid with Repliforce markings on his armor away with her shield.

Why the Druid System hadn't alerted him he didn't know, which meant that it didn't consider Reploids a major threat in the air.

Something he'd have to rectify later.

He made a mental note to thank Rakshata for going out of her way to build the Reploid an air glide pack out of sheer scientific curiosity, even if the power and control issues still hadn't been fully resolved.

Supposedly the former had been due to Rakshata not wishing the pack to overload for some reason, he wasn't sure why given that last he checked C2 utilized a high-end solar reactor.

Unless she was built with a very _different_ power source and didn't even know it.

["Zero! I've got this! Just go!"] C2 barked at the Shinkiro as he nodded.

"Roger, just keep him off us." Lelouch replied, deciding to wait until later to ponder that question while noting that C2 was still wobbling a bit in the air, likely due to her being used to ground based combat and trying to actively fight against the new control software.

"Don't get killed." He added as he brought the Shinkiro in for a landing at the vessel's starboard hangar, shoulder mounted HMGs popping up and forcing the Britannian soldiers, crewmen, and Reploids guarding the bay to dive for cover while the tiltrotor touched down behind him and disgorged what members of Squad 7 that C2 had deemed necessary for the mission, the Reploids clearing out the stragglers in the bay with volleys of energy weapons fire and a few concussion grenades as the survivors retreated.

* * *

Spiral Pegasus narrowed his eyes as C2 over-adjusted in response to a sudden change in the airflow as the _Lohengrin _ascended, air washing over the surface of the nearly one-kilometer wide flying wing as it climbed.

"_She has absolutely no idea what she's doing… And that makes for a very _dead_ flyer."_ He noted as he wordlessly charged at her again.

C2 barely blocked the attack as she spiraled away, only narrowly righting herself before she would've been caught in the dangerous wingtip vortices of an escorting cruiser. ["Damn… you're tough…"] She grumbled over radio, as it would've been impossible to speak to him in the din and rush of the wind, both Reploids also trying to keep up with the air fleet as it moved.

["And you're a fool who's way in over her head."] He scoffed as he dove and expertly flew around her. C2 desperately trying to turn in response to his movements as she scrambled to get a target lock. ["Your movements are too rash and you're burning too much energy trying to move against the airflow at the wrong angles, I'm surprised you even got _airborne_ in the first place."]

With one fell stroke of his arm he left her air glide pack in shambles and kicked her away, C2 tumbling towards the ocean below after the pack detached. Closing her eyes as she waited for her inevitable destruction when she pancaked against the water with enough velocity behind her to make it the equivalent of slamming into solid rock.

Then she felt her course gently change and slowly become parallel to the Earth's surface.

She opened her eyes.

Todoh had caught her with the Zangetsu.

["Thanks… I owe you one Colonel…"]

["I'll cash in the favor later."] The perpetually scowling man replied as the machine pulled up and climbed faster than Spiral Pegasus could move to intercept before stopping and depositing her on the deck of the _Lohengrin_, C2 magnetizing herself to the ship to prevent anything more than her hair from being blown about in the furious wind. ["Now go! Help Zero! We can handle things out here."]

["Roger!"] She acknowledged before turning and making her way to a Reploid use access hatch on the ship's upper deck.

Todoh turned to face Spiral Pegasus and drew the Zangetsu's Brake Sword. ["Face me if you dare, tool of Britannia! And know that you were defeated by Todoh!"] He challenged as six Scopedog-based Eagleed ride armors bearing Repliforce markings flew up and deployed around Spiral Pegasus.

["Consider the challenge accepted Sword of Itsukushima!"] The Reploid replied as he drew his beam saber and charged, his troops following him as the Meigetsus of the Holy Swords formed up around Todoh to aid their leader in battle, the Zangetsu surging forwards to meet the attack from its significantly smaller opponent.

* * *

Shirley glanced around as she and a small detachment hovered above the battle below, serving as top cover for the Black Knights in the event enemy air reinforcements tried to dive down upon them.

"Any changes?" She asked one of her subordinates.

["Negative… Wait… I've got something…"] One of the Command Akatsuki pilots began before a VARIS sphere shot through their frame and blew it apart.

"EVASIVE!" Shirley yelled in a panic as the Knightmares scattered, Ledo and Schnee's custom Lionels, the Blaze and Snipe respectively, backed by Rivalz's blue Lionel Ashford rising to meet them.

Shirley winced nervously as the blue Lionel charged straight at her.

["Why do you people keep attacking Britannia!?"]

"Because we don't have any other choice!" Shirley shot back without thinking, the Blue Lionel stopping dumbfounded in mid-air. "Britannia is corrupt to the core!"

["S… Shirley…? Why…?"] Rivalz asked, shocked that he was facing her down in combat.

"I could ask you the same thing! What would Madame Prez think abou-" Shirley began before being cut off.

["YOU DON'T GET TO SAY HER NAME! NOT AFTER WHAT YOU BLACK KNIGHTS DID!"] Rivalz shrieked over her radio, scaring the daylights out of Shirley and giving him an opening to attack her, the ginger barely blocking his Maser Vibration Lance's thrust with her radiant wave shield.

"_W… Why? Why did that make him so… Mad?"_ She thought nervously as she backed away, the Guren Mark II Kai opening up with its Radiant Wave Buster to try and force Rivalz back.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMAS **_**Avalon**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

Lloyd hummed idly as he watched his Lancelot dance with the Guren, keeping track of them via their unique flight patterns and the former's IFF. "It's all so tiresome, isn't it Cecile?" He mused as he looked away, starting to get bored.

"What is Lloyd?" The woman asked as she turned to face him.

"It's basically a game of capes and crooks, the Black Knights and us each think of ourselves as the heroes, but at the end of the day one side basically ends up running away, shaking their fist and shouting 'I'll get you next time!' like a defeated supervillain. Even the prospect of battle data against Rakshata's designs isn't really livening things up anymore…" He admitted. "I'd very much prefer being in on the frontlines back in Europa to this."

"Are you seriously getting _bored_ Lloyd?" Cecile asked, somewhat shocked.

"No, it's just… Nothing at all I guess. Maybe I've gotten too _desensitized_ to combat since Suzaku became a round, given that the Uprising was practically day in and day out of battles and everyone's still trying to figure out how to get back to a normal operational tempo." He said thoughtfully. "Now isn't _that_ a scary thought?"

"What is?"

"That we're so used to fighting incessant battles that _downtime_ and lower intensity operations are alien to us." He chuckled.

Cecile nodded in agreement, finding the thought disturbing as well.

"Enemy airships closing!" An operator reported urgently.

"Hmm, that doesn't bode well… Should we call for more backup?" Lloyd inquired as he turned to face Cecile.

She frowned. "Perhaps… But that remains General Darlton's call."

* * *

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

C2's metal footfalls clanked audibly as she rushed through the ship, glancing around at the carnage left by Zero and Squad Seven.

She came to a halt and peered around the corner after hearing footfalls on the other side.

Rounding it, she immediately lashed out with her shield and felt a satisfying clang off it as it impacted something.

"Commander! Wait! It's us!" Someone shouted, causing C2 to vent her buster's charge rather than release it, blue plasma flaring off the side of her partially charged arm cannon.

"Why the hell are your IFFs off!?" She snapped at them as Blaster Onager, the team's lead heavy weapons specialist scratched his mane sheepishly. "If I'd gotten that buster to full charge and fired I'd've vaporized the lot of you if your shields were down!"

"Uhh… ECM interference?" The equine Reploid suggested lamely.

C2 facepalmed with her buster and looked down at a dazed Metabee.

"Did someone get the number on that truck…?" He groaned as Rokusho and Digit, the team's tech specialist and medic, helped him up.

"Sorry about that, where's Zero?" She asked, hoping to get a quick explanation as the ship rocked slightly from an explosion, likely a Knightmare detonating.

That or incoming fire from her own side's airships impacting the Blaze Luminous barriers.

"Pinned down with the rest of the team near the Viceroy's location, but there's a particularly stubborn R2 unit that's blocking us from getting to him, he buggered off somewhere shortly before you arrived." Digit explained while checking on Metabee.

C2 frowned. "R2 units are diminished Reploids, they shouldn't even understand the _concept_ of stubborn." She mused worriedly.

"Apparently the Brits refitted a couple of them then." Onager grumbled as he hefted his repeating buster cannon.

"Wonderful. You lot go to the port hangar and alert us if anyone lands, _I'll_ go and assist Zero." She ordered.

"Good hunting ma'am." Digit acknowledged as C2 smirked and rushed off.

"She does know where Zero is… Right?" Onager realized after a moment.

"Well, it's not that hard to follow a trail of bodies and destroyed Reploids." Rokusho pointed out.

"Fair enough."

* * *

True to Rokusho's word, C2 had simply followed the trail of bodies, much to her disconcertion given the amount of blood and spilt oil staining the hallways, and found Lelouch and the other half of Squad Seven exchanging fire with a group of fully geared Britannian soldiers, Mark 4C Grunt Reploids, and R2 series Reploids down a corridor.

She tapped Zero on the shoulder, watching him jump with some smug satisfaction.

"You _really_ need to have someone watching your six, if I'd been Britannian you'd be dead right now." She pointed out.

Lelouch rolled his eyes behind the mask. ="I'll take that into consideration, just clear the way for us."= He ordered.

C2 grinned a bit _too_ eagerly for his liking as she stowed her shield and her hands retracted into her arms while her drills extended, spooling to life and becoming sheathed in crackling red energy. "Roger that." She chuckled as she strode menacingly towards the Britannian forces, most of whom took one look at the feared 'Banshee of Pendragon' and _ran for their lives_.

All that remained were the R2s, which had no concept of self-preservation beyond avoiding imminent damage and proceeded to open fire, plasma rounds from their busters sizzling towards C2, whom flared her thrusters and proceeded to _run_ up a wall before leaping off and carving into them, parts flinging away from the melee she'd launched herself into.

"I guess her reputation precedes her…" Hammer, Squad Seven's secondary heavy weapons specialist mumbled under his breath as C2 continued to carve her mass-produced clones apart.

Lelouch had to agree on that point.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMS **_**Enterprise**_**, CVN-65, West Pacific Ocean.**

Captain Hans-Joachim Marseille II frowned as he glanced over at his X-02 Wyvern as it was being refueled and armed for a combat engagement, having run late and been forced to ferry with minimal weapons load.

"Are you certain that those _things_ have to go ahead of us?" Aquilla Two, Lieutenant Kazie Mitchell inquired as they watched a pair of crimson red F-11 Sea Vixens with their cockpits replaced by an unusual enclosed area taxied to the bow catapults, a few cameras visible behind protective coverings on the aerodynamic fairing. "I know that this ship is testing out a bunch of new tech on her maiden voyage… But _this_?"

"Not much we can do about it. I doubt the air wing's pilots are much happy to be sharing their deck with these Mechaniloid fighters either." He pointed out to her as the aircraft were shot forwards and began to ascend, turning and burning towards the engagement area where the Black Knights were fighting the taskforce transporting Princess Nunnally to Area 11. "Alright." He said as he walked back to his fighter, the wind flowing across the flight deck whipping at the gear straps on his flightsuit as the current plane guard VTOL thrummed about nearby after taking off from an escorting destroyer. "Our turn is coming up, make sure to stand ready for when we sortie."

"Understood."

* * *

**West Pacific Airspace.**

Kallen _finally_ managed to get Suzaku isolated enough to have a clear shot with the wave surger, locking on and pulling the trigger.

Only for a low power alert to blare on the cockpit screens of the Guren.

"Huh!?"

["You fell for it, blowing your energy load trying to chase me down instead of ripping into my side with wild abandon."] Suzaku huffed over her comms, pointing out the obvious and rookie mistake she'd made, disappointment lacing his tone. ["I expected better from you Kallen."]

Her face burned with rage. "I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS SUZAKU!" She yelled at him as she opened fire with the Guren's 40mm arm cannon, the Lancelot deftly dodging the incoming fire before flying off, Suzaku deciding to not finish her off out of sentimentality and prudence over his own dwindling energy levels as she turned and raced back to the _Ikaruga_ to replace her energy filler.

* * *

Far above, Shirley was having an even worse time as the Guren Mark II Kai was barely holding its own, her subordinates having either been shot down or forced to engage a detachment of Vincent Wards, leaving her on her own and rapidly running low on power.

"Someone!? Anyone!? Support!" She pleaded over the radio as Ledo's Lionel Blaze swept up into her duel with Rivalz and aimed for the killing blow with one of its trademark Luminous Boxer melee weapons.

Shirley closed her eyes, hoping Lelouch and the others wouldn't be driven into a blind rage by her fate.

And then blinked as a brilliant explosion filled her screens. "Huh?"

As it cleared, she saw before her a pink Akatsuki command type, a wave surger replacing its right arm.

["Calm down."] Nemo's voice played over her speakers as Ledo's Lionel reeled back, missing its left arm and the Luminous Boxer that'd been carried by it, the latter having exploded due to the amount of sakuradite laced into it.

The Akatsuki blocked a shot from Schnee's VARIS sniper before parrying Rivalz's attempt to use his maser vibration lance to strike the machine directly, the Lionel Ashford releasing the weapon and backing away from it as it was melted into a glowing rain of slag by the wave surger, which released the now former lance and let it fall to the Pacific below, the three Lionels now on the retreat. ["Get back to the Ikaruga and get a fresh energy filler before Suzaku decides to pick you off on his way back to the _Avalon_."] Nemo instructed her.

Shirley glanced down at the battle below and watched several Knightmares, gunships, and even a fighter jet turn into short-lived fireballs, marking the deadly path of Suzaku as the white glint that was the Lancelot raced back towards its mothership. "R… Roger!"

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMAS **_**Dominance**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

Aboard the _Dominance_, a single red painted fighter was being prepped for takeoff, the unusual forward swept winged aircraft being carted to a flight deck via a rail system.

Much like the modified F-11s currently flying from the deck of the _Enterprise_, it had an enclosed cockpit fitted with multiple cameras hidden behind small octagonal panels.

The aircraft's control surfaces twitched as it automatically performed a final pre-flight check.

["ADF-01, codename: FALKEN, cleared for takeoff."] The air boss stated with some modicum of discontent as the automated fighter was rocketed forwards off the immense airship's upper flight deck and into the sky, where it was immediately joined by the two automated F-11s that were ferried from the _Enterprise_, the latter aircraft releasing their now empty drop tanks as they linked to FALKEN over the datanet and followed it into the furball.

* * *

**West Pacific Airspace.**

["This is Crow 04, looks like the Brits just launched something from that carrier."] One of the pilots reported as Todoh diverted some of his attention to see what was going on.

Spiral Pegasus took the opening to disengage with the remaining three Eagleed ride armors, the less maneuverable mechs having suffered casualties to the Swords during their battle even if their leader had managed to evade every attack Todoh had thrown at him after realizing the Zangetsu seriously overmatched his abilities in an aerial engagement.

["I don't like the look of this Colonel."] Senba muttered as he leveled his Meigetsu's arm gun at the incoming fighters.

**ZONE OF ENDLESS**

**ADF-01 FALKEN/F-11 Sea Vixen**

**Allied Special Envoy Engineering Corps/Grunder Industries/Britannian Aeronautics and Space Administration Special Irregular Automated Test Unit**

As if sensing his weapon aimed at it, the lead fighter's front opened up like a giant metal _beak_ and glowed as a brilliant blue laser fired out towards the Holy Swords, who only dodged the attack by virtue of having been in motion after spotting the aircraft shifting. The beam scythed through a hapless Black Knight gunship, which burned as it fell from the sky.

["The hell!? A laser!?"] Asahina squawked in alarm as his Akatuski turned and began to fire at the aircraft as they passed.

["We need fighter cover!"] Chiba growled as the ADF-01 flipped about and dove on them, using its float system tactically to perform a bring itself around in a split second, Chiba's eyes widening in shock. ["There's no way that thing's manned! Those maneuvers would knock out a human pilot instantly and there's no response lag to sensor inputs like a Reploid would have!"]

["A Mechaniloid!?"] Urabe questioned as the aircraft shot past them.

["It has to be! No way a remote operated drone could pull maneuvers like that on its own initiative!"] Sneba snarled as evaded missiles being plinked at them by the F-11 ZOE units.

["We may need assistance to deal with this."] Todoh muttered, his grimace hardening. ["Captain Inoue, a trio of unknown enemy fighters are engaging us, we need additional support!"] He barked over the radio.

["Roger, Scarface Squadron is prepping for takeoff. ETA 6 minutes. ETA 12 on fighters from the _Fujin_, they've been having issues with trying to recover aircraft due to some mechanical problems."] Inoue replied from the _Ikaruga_.

["We need them here in _three_! Make it happen!"] Todoh snapped at her.

Inoue huffed dryly. ["We'll see what we can do. But I'm not working my crew to the bone on the regular just to bail you out of trouble. What I can do is get the Guren back out in three, but Scarface will have to wait another minute."]

Todoh winced. Inoue hadn't been the most outspoken, usually taking a calm and reserved stance with the troops to try and raise morale when Zero wasn't on hand. But the interim period and her injuries from Tokyo clearly hadn't been kind to her, making her into someone who was less inclined to be pushed around by others, which would endear her to the soldiers under her command but not by the higher ups once the UFN military inevitably expanded beyond the Black Knights.

He just hoped she saw that outcome as well. "Understood." He acknowledged.

* * *

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

"The ZOE units are engaging enemy forces; they've distracted the Swords long enough for Spiral Pegasus to disengage and are currently forcing enemy air power away from the core of our fleet, all systems are functioning normally." An operator reported.

Darlton nodded. "What about internal security?"

"Our troops withdrew after the Banshee showed up, only the R2s engaged her."

He grimaced. "I see, well then activate all the stored R1 units and disperse them at key areas throughout the ship, we'll need them."

"Yes, my lord!"

Darlton turned to face the bridge windows, watching the battle rage around his ship. _"So, how much longer can either side hold out?"_ He wondered warily.

"Reinforcements are arriving from air transport _Suruga Bay_!" Another operator shouted as she looked up from her console.

He smirked as he watched the CV-53s race towards his ship, being ignored by the enemy in the chaos. "Good."

_"Let's see you handle a _hundred _additional opponents on a battlefield you _can't_ shape as you desire, Zero."_

* * *

Zero drew his pistol and fired a pair of shots down the hall, both rounds bouncing uselessly off an R2 Reploid's helmet as it marched towards him, stun tonfas crackling with electricity.

One of the Squad Seven members, Trident if he remembered correctly, fired his buster at the R2, blowing the front of its head apart, the unit stopping and slumping over before falling to the ground entirely. "Go! We can hold the line! Especially with her here!" He said as he thumbed in C2's general direction, just as she smashed a brute-class R2 Reploid's head into the corridor wall using the Guts Soul to boost her physical strength by a substantial margin, the massive arms of the enemy machine going limp as a result of its processor being destroyed.

Zero nodded at them as he turned and rushed for the room Nunnally was in.

* * *

Digit frowned as a trio of CV-53s roared into the hangar bay, spraying fire from their door mounted .50 caliber machine guns as they turned around, each of their yawning rear ramps lowering to disgorge a wave of R2 Reploids from their holds. The VTOLs immediately launched out of the hangar once the last of their cargo had leapt off to avoid being hit while landed, the combatants in the air too busy to take more than passing notice of them.

Blaster Onager leveled his heavy repeating buster and opened fire once the incoming had subsided, energy pulses streaming towards the horde of oncoming R2s, which took cover and returned fire.

Digit snapped off a few buster shots before ducking down under the sheer weight of fire, which began to melt parts of the wall behind them into slag. "C2! Enemy reinforcements have landed in the port hangar! There's about a hundred of them!"

["Damn! Withdraw from the hangar and head to the starboard bay and help the grunts hold our evac route! Todoh's holding action will be meaningless if our transportation is destroyed on the deck! We need to cover Zero for as long as possible!"]

"Roger!" She acknowledged as Metabee leapt up and fired a pair of seeker missiles from the horns on his head, yelling at the top of his volume limit.

The missiles were promptly shot out of the air under the sheer volume of incoming buster shots.

"Okay! Bad idea!" Metabee yelped as he bolted towards the closest door while under heavy fire. "RETREAT!"

Digit rolled her eyes as she and the others followed.

* * *

An explosion gently buffeted the _Lohengrin_ as Nunnally frowned pensively.

The doors of her garden chambers slid open, Zero striding inside as the sounds of combat echoed from the corridor, being cut off suddenly as they slid shut again.

"So, you've come." She murmured as she turned around in her wheelchair. "Zero I presume?"

Lelouch frowned behind his mask. ="Viceroy Nunnally, if I may call you that?"=

"You may." She replied, keeping her voice even.

Lelouch's frown deepened, he was in too far to back out now. ="Very well then, I would like to have a _discussion_ about Britannia with you, Your _Highness_."=

The ship rocked as a shot damaged one of its engines, plunging the room into darkness as the lights failed in that section before the ominous red glare of emergency lighting kicking in bathed it in a hellish glow, which was punctuated by the track-mounted monoeyes of two R2 Reploids flaring to life on either side of Nunnally.

* * *

**AN: And here's part one of the air fleet battle done, the next chapter will feature it for part of the reading, before moving on to other things lest it get tedious. Not very long overall but it's sort of one of those quality over quantity things.**

**Also, for Judeota: The list of characters revealed so far who remember at least part of the previous CG timeline are as follows: Charles, C.C./Liath, Bartley (Kept under C.C.'s thumb through a mix of Geass and fear as she's not adverse to using her Geass of Absolute Devotion to_ amplify_ someone's existing feelings of devotion rather than create_ false_ ones, and for more purposes than just directed at herself, a loophole in her own psychology she realized early on after her memories reawakened, inadvertently allowing her to keep control of her Geass).**

**For 20XX's timeline: Serges/Wily, Shadow Man.**

**X doesn't count since he was in stasis and only remembers Doctor Light, some of his 'siblings' and his 'father's' colleagues like Cossack and Lalinde.**

**And that's it, anyone else who remembers either hasn't been revealed yet or is irrelevant to the plot thus far.**

**Oh and as for the _Morrigan_-class, it's inspired by the Banshee-class air carriers from Battle Fairy Yukikaze. The Black Knights _Minegumo_-class being based on the Aigaion.**

**The _Dullahan_ is based on a Britannianized and lower-tech version of the Parjanya-class aerial battleship by Zenesava of LightHouse Mechanics over on Seensa, the dude's a whiz at mechanical design, particularly those inspired by sci-fi like Space Battleship Yamato and Gundam among other franchises.**

**Anyways, lower tech meaning that the _Dullahan_ has more conventional surfaces and weapons emplacement design rather than the space-fantasy esque thing what I'm deriving it from has going on.**

**Might've forgotten to do some of this earlier but eh.**

**Also, as I've said in X1, the F-14 Skyfang is the Britannian F-23 inspired fighter from the first R1 opening, the prologue, and a brief scene in a photo at Tokyo Tower (Which was taken from the opening in a fitting example of asset reuse) in Stage 04: 'His name is Zero'.**

**The F-15 Spiteful is a Britannianized production type F-32, fitting with the use of the F-23 styled skyfang.**

**While the F-11 Sea Vixen is based on the F-23 NATF, though with some modification to the design to 'Britannianize' it.**

**Oh and the FB-14 Strike Fang from the previous chapter is basically the FB-23.**

**The Guren Hiyou is just the Flight Enabled Type but with an actual name like Lancelot Air Cavalry, because screw typing 'Flight Enabled Type' every time I want to clarify which version it is.**

**Meanwhile the F/A-27 Sakura is the aircraft of the same designation from Battle Fairy Yukikaze.**

**And the FALKEN is the one from Ace Combat, specifically the ZOE version from AC2 with the design from AC5 and onwards. And on steroids because it also has Blaze Luminous for defense, solar reactors for added power, and a float system to improve maneuverability.**

S**ome R series variants are inspired by their Pantheon counterparts from the Zero series, for example the Brute being equivalent to the Pantheon Fist while the Tonfa equipped unit is based on the Pantheon Guardian but better optimized for combat.**

**On a side note, I'll be hitting a hiatus for a couple weeks after I drop chapter 7 while I add two-three more chapters to the pipeline, it's sort of my thing to keep that many ahead waiting for edits until I'm ready to drop them but I just want to let people know ahead of time why there's going to be a cliffhanger for a while.**


	7. Turn 7: The Pain of Knowledge

**AN: Not gonna lie, expect some more implications of serious shit having gone down during the Uprising, the Mavericks don't pull punches.**

**For anyone who isn't familiar with the X series.**

**You think the SAZ massacre was bad?**

**Well that's barely a drop in the **_**tub **_**compared to what the Mavericks caused throughout multiple successive wars in the X series, which initially peaked at the destruction of _two_ _entire cities_ in the aftermath of the opening stage of X4, and culminated in the near extinction of humanity at least **_**twice**_** despite the best efforts of X and Zero****, once via a literal colony drop, and the second time, the Elf Wars, directly leading to the Zero games and the post-apoc environment that holds.**

**This is _canon_ Mega Man X by the way, where Sigma revealed himself as the de-facto leader of the Maverick Rebellions from the get-go rather than working from the shadows as here.**

**Small wonder that the 21XX era of the robotics timeline of the Mega Man series is so easy to work with as an idea when merging it with Code Geass in practice. It's not just the arcane stuff like C's world and Cyberspace, both the X series and CG series mesh so well despite them seeming so utterly incompatible because at the core of it, it's a war between the very instincts of man and machine, destruction versus creation, the future versus the past, peace versus war, progress versus regression, justice versus injustice, the ends versus the means.**

**Oh how I wish I could've done X1 more justice on these themes with my writing rather than it being a modified transcription of R1.**

**Reviews:**

**Judeota- Yeah, Lelouch always needed a firm asskicking to get his perspective on things, he was always so focused on Nunnally without actually being concerned about her safety when the hammer fell that it came as a detriment to everything else he did, it wasn't until he thought she was _dead_ that he was able to truly commit to anything.**

**And then she turned out to be quite alive thanks to Oldrin Zevon's offscreen intervention courtesy of an O2 retcon, nearly shattering his resolve until Suzaku gave him a swift dose of reality.**

**As for the moonlighting thing I think it's more or less Lelouch not really knowing what the hell he was doing and getting drunk on the power Geass offered, he notably had plans beforehand which were accelerated by the contract C.C. offered him. He was totally out of his depth and really only got by out of a mix of luck, Geass, and being able to outthink most of his opponents.**

**The moment things went extremely haywire he just locked up or went off in random directions and left his troops leaderless.**

**By the time he was even close to realizing how unprepared he was, everything had already spiraled out of control.**

**Didn't quite have this problem in R2 but he still had his conceited arrogance, which laid the seeds of his own downfall.**

**I mean god, Suzaku's a dumbass but Lelouch really isn't that much better.**

**As for Rivalz, he's skilled yeah but very inexperienced, Kallen, one of the Swords, Akito, or other similarly tiered opponents would absolutely destroy him in seconds once they saw an opening, and that's largely because he pushed himself incredibly hard in a short period of time after enlisting in the army's Knightmare Corps, risking burnout in the process in an attempt to get noticed by someone important, in his case Suzaku by sheer chance.**

**For a reason that this chapter will make clear.**

**Also he had a three to one advantage against Shirley with Ledo and Schnee backing him up until Nemo put paid to those plans by ambushing them and taking out one of the Lionel Blaze's arms before Rivalz decided to engage her in melee despite her custom Akatsuki Command type having a wave surger arm, helping show his inexperience since it's really kind of an impulsive move to do against a Knightmare equipped with that specific weapon.**

**Even Suzaku really doesn't try to engage Kallen at close range unless he's not thinking clearly (as at Tokyo, and even then he would've killed her had Lelouch not stepped in), has no choice, or does so to decoy her, as occurred during Zero Requiem.**

**But yeah, it's kind of par for the course for Code Geass, Suzaku notably was significantly better just on his first sortie in Lancelot.**

**Shirley meanwhile was stuck on the defensive and trying to avoid attacks from multiple angles, which she does decently well at until she slips up and had to get saved by Nemo, whom was mostly just lurking about waiting for an opening of her own. And yeah, Shirley isn't nearly Kallen/Suzaku tier either, and she knows that quite well, which is why the Mark II Kai is effectively a support unit for the Mark II to operate at range.**

**And for Suzaku, yeah you may have been reading into some of his lines regarding Euphie a bit too much as he's not aware of the previous timeline, there _were_ indirect allusions to it however though by using Euphie's current state as a parallel. That said Suzaku and Lelouch do retain some fragments owing to their connection to C.C. as a result of their contact at Narita while she was doing spooky code stuff, but they both lack the context to make any sense of it, and thus assume they're just vivid dreams or hallucinations, even if Lelouch has grown suspicious of them. (A plot thread I tried to run in X1, but my own inability to commit let it down, which wasn't helped by me sticking way too close to the source material because I was extremely [And with some justification] unsure about my ability to create a constant stream of original material until the end of that story's run.)**

* * *

"_I'm not surprised C2 was so heavily scarred by her experiences given how_ human_ she was, or that she hid it so well from everyone, she did learn how to maintain a mask from observing one of the best after all. Maybe a little_ too_ well it turned out."_-Shirley Fennette, excerpt from _The Black Valkyrie: A Biography of Zero's right hand Reploid during and after the Black Rebellions._

"_In hindsight, C.C. putting Nunnally aboard the _Lohengrin_ proved to be more fitting than anyone suspected, aside from maybe Lelouch given he's more cultured than Kallen or C2. I simply barely cared. My template always was a massive troll, even if she was subtle about it most of the time."_-Nemo, personal journal kept postwar.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

Zero lowered his sidearm as he strode towards Nunnally in the pale emergency lighting, wary of the knight-like R2s that stood to either side of her.

An alert over the _Lohengrin's_ 1MC indicated that the darkness was the result of local power loss, undoubtedly from the fighting inside the ship.

"Do you genuinely expect me to believe you only came to talk after you've killed one of my siblings, left one badly wounded for a time, and put another in a coma? On top of everything _else_ you've done?" Nunnally inquired, steel in her voice.

Lelouch was briefly taken aback at how different Nunnally was from how he last saw her.

But the realization quickly hit him, she _was_ different.

She was growing up.

Shirley too was growing beyond the girl she'd once been. As had Kallen even if it wasn't as obvious.

C2 likewise had evolved as a person, what was once deadpan snark and anger directed at him was now someone looking for a true purpose and whom was in a semi-functional relationship.

Begrudgingly he even had to admit that Suzaku carried out his responsibilities as Knight of Seven quite well.

And the kicker was that Euphie, before everything hit the fan, had also grown far beyond who she used to be.

The outlier was _himself_,** he** had blatantly refused to change, and that was holding him back. He was still acting like he was the same seventeen year old moronically trying to run an open rebellion against the most powerful nation on Earth on top of his high school studies.

He was nineteen now, _nineteen_. He wasn't a student and Ashford Academy no longer held sway over his life.

It was his turn to grow up as well, to become what the world _needed_ him to be.

He'd told Euphie back on Kamine Island that the past couldn't be revived, it was high time he put his money where his mouth was and moved on.

Zero finally broke his silence. ="Of course not, you'd have to be a child or an imbecile to earnestly believe I came to speak in goodwill while my forces continue attacking your escorts."= He said as he flicked the safety on and put his gun down before kicking it across the floor. ="I have therefore left myself unarmed as a peace offering."=

If she somehow knew about his Geass, she'd also know that it only worked via eye contact, rendering her safe from it.

So far she'd given no such inclinations and Lelouch doubted that the Emperor, Suzaku, or Liath would've informed her about it.

Nunnally frowned before relaxed a bit, gesturing for the R2s to stand down for the moment, the Reploids settling down despite giving her a glance that Lelouch recognized with some surprise as uncertainty, indicating that their AI was far more advanced than normal R2 series units. "What is it that you wish to speak about?"

="Why did you choose to serve the country that abandoned you?"= Zero asked. ="Did Britannia not send you to Japan and leave you to die, to serve as a casus belli?"=

"Yes." Nunnally confirmed.

="Then _why_? Why serve that corrupt and decadent nation which seeks only the fruits of war and slavery?"= He pressed, hoping to at least get an answer out of Nunnally.

Nunnally smiled softly. "Because I wish to realize Euphemia's dream. To create the Special Administrative Zone of Japan, the first step towards a better world. Not the twisted nightmare it became after her secluded visitation with _you_." She spat, warily remembering overhearing Suzaku talking to Cornelia about how Euphie enacted her attempted genocide only _after_ exiting the G-1 when her elder sister confronted him about what he knew.

She didn't catch the tail end of it, but the implication was that Zero had done something, though based on the commotion and hearing his voice in the background of the radio broadcast desperately calling out for Euphemia, as if trying to stop her, she doubted it was intentional.

Still, she couldn't trust him easily.

Lelouch froze in shock, having not anticipated this scenario at all, least of all the venom in the tail end of Nunnally's final sentence. _"What!?"_

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**West Pacific Airspace.**

The Guren Hiyou shot forwards and into the sky from the _Ikaruga_'s port flight deck, the Knightmare banking back into the air battle which had taken a turn for the worst in her absence.

"This is Q1, moving to engage enemy fighters!" Kallen barked as she accelerated.

A volley of VARIS shots cut that plan short as the Lancelot dove on her like a hawk once she reached the edge of the battle area, Suzaku clearly attempting to keep her out of the fight.

Snarling, Kallen turned and switched to a wide spray beam, firing it at the Lancelot Conquista in a brilliant pulse that lit up the sky.

She watched the white Knightmare go limp and begin to lose altitude as its electronics failed before a group of automatic parachutes deployed from the float pack, arresting its rapid descent. "Fuck off Suzaku, I'm not in the mood to deal with your shit." She growled before turning and racing off to engage the ZOE fighters, which had been pursued by Todoh and his unit after the Swords had suddenly found themselves no longer under attack from them.

It had quickly become apparent as to _why_, the ADF-01's internal computer was prioritizing Knightmares outfitted with radiant wave weapons as priority threats. Thus it and its wingmen were currently harassing Nemo and Shirley with missiles and gunfire as they tried to withdraw for resupply after Schnee reported in that Rivalz and Ledo were no longer combat effective.

As tempting as it was while he sat there helplessly, a mix of her own sentimentality and prudence regarding the higher priority threats prevented her from just killing Suzaku. Nemo was struggling and if she didn't hurry Shirley would probably end up being shot down, the ginger meant well and wasn't too shabby in a Knightmare, but against high tier opponents she was about as deadweight as Tamaki, and both were low on energy to boot.

There was only so much the Swords could do with their machines either.

Even if Kallen knew she wouldn't catch him offguard with a trick like that again, making any further attempts useless.

Kallen flicked to narrow beam mode and fired once she had a clear shot lined up, a brilliant magenta stream of energy ripping through the air as Nemo's Akatsuki Command and the Mark II Kai Hiyou dove to break contact with the enemy aircraft, while the Zangetsu and its four attendant Meigetsus spread out to avoid being hit.

And totally missing all three fighters as they evaded the attack almost as soon as she pulled the trigger. "DAMNIT!" She snarled, trying and failing to get a lock with the missiles loaded on her Guren's air glide pack as the wave surger's expended cartridge fell to the ocean surface below.

Rakshata had initially wanted them to be air glide enabled Gefjun disturbers but the energy drain had proven to be intractable in such a small format, and alternative power sources could not be justified on a tiny expendable warhead due to cost, rendering the weapon useless. Thus the Knightmare-use Gefjun net project ended up being shelved indefinitely.

The missile cells she had were naturally a bit more versatile, but her sensors weren't feeding in the appropriate data for air to air combat, likely owing to Rakshata having not fully tested the systems integration on the Guren before Lelouch decided to pull off his raid. "Damnit Lelouch! This is why you don't rush shit into combat!" Kallen growled as she fired the micro-missiles in lock-on after launch mode instead, the seekers attempting to track the ZOE craft but failing to do so owing to IR jamming, each missile flying off into space before detonating in mid-air upon failing to acquire a lock before energy loss rapidly overcame inertia after the motors shut off.

She cursed herself for forgetting home on jam mode like an idiot.

The fighters rolled and came around for another run, the ADF-01's external weapons pods and internal bays opening to launch the aircraft's full payload of missiles at once for the _third_ time that day, the F-11s joining with their own barrage.

Kallen barely brought up the wave surger's barrier again to defend herself as the missiles impacted, severely draining her energy filler, which she was thankful had been full. "The hell!? How does it have so many missiles onboard?!" Kallen yelped in surprise.

["This is _Ikaruga_ to Q1, we just identified a high energy transmission consistent with a transerver beacon in your vicinity via datalink from the Guren's factsphere."] Inoue jutted in as a burst of gunfire shot past the Guren courtesy of an F-15 Spiteful, a retaliatory chaingun hit damaging the single-engine multirole fighter and forcing it to break off and try to flee back to the carrier. ["It looks like they're remotely reloading the aircraft's missiles based on the signal strength."]

Kallen paled, she didn't need to be a fighter pilot to understand that the ability to reload mid-flight changed the entire paradigm of air warfare. Normally transervers were utilized to rapidly move Maverick Hunter assets between locations as needed, often to deploy strike forces between continents or to remote locations where air, ground, or sea access would be difficult.

But that wasn't the only thing they could be used for, as this revelation had been made clear.

And what was stopping Britannia from putting this on _warships_, letting them reload the VLS cells of their vessels while at sea if neccesary, something generally deemed too difficult to perform based on questions she'd asked some of the Black Knights' naval officers one time while trying to alleviate boredom.

It was a gamechanger not unlike the introduction of Blaze Luminous shielding for Britannian landships and naval vessels, perhaps even more so.

The ADF-01's 'beak' opened up as it prepared to fire its laser weapon again, Kallen putting the Guren into a roll to try and evade, immediately realizing her mistake as the fighter readily tracked her into her maneuver.

She'd never get the Guren's wave surger claw around in time, and her existing radiant wave barrier wouldn't stop the attack after she'd shunted its energy into the claw to defend against the missile attack.

Kallen closed her eyes, ready to accept her fate. _"Father... Mother... I'm sorry... But I'm about to join Naoto..."_

The FALKEN's laser emitter glowed menacingly as it prepared to fire.

Then its blaze luminous flared a brilliant translucent green as Scarface 1's Fishpot dove on it, 23mm autocannon blazing, the agile Soviet made heavy fighter's control surfaces tilting as it pulled hard Gs in an attempt to keep pace with the now evasive drone, which had utilized its float system to snap about and move into a dive. A laser beam briefly sweeping through the sky marked the direction its nose was pointing in as it kept moving to dodge Phoneix's attacks. Meanwhile Scarface 02 and 03 angled on the escorting drone Skyfangs, one of them bursting into flames and spiraling out of the sky after a missile connected with it while it attempted to process tactical options.

["Scarface 1 to Q1, we've got this, break off and go help Colonel Todoh."] Scarface 1 confirmed, a heavy weight lifting off of Kallen's heart as she saw the firebird emblem on the tail of his Fishpot as it shot by her.

"Roger!" Kallen acknowledged as she left Scarface to their work and headed towards the _Lohengrin _at combat speed, weaving her way through the Britannian flak as she approached a group of Vincent Wards, a Gareth and a pair of Vincent Commands firing away at the Swords while they attempted to duel with the Lionel units of the Glaston Knights, whom had pounced on them in the time she was distracted trying to evade the ZOE units.

Kallen sneered, she was going to remind the Britannians that split-second shifts in an air battle worked _both_ ways.

"I WANT TO SEE YOU _BURST_ BRITANNIAN!" Kallen yelled as she fired up the wave surger arm in contact mode, grabbing onto the closest Knightmare's cockpit pod and immolating the machine and its pilot, the Vincent Ward blowing up as its Yggdrasil drive went critical not long after, its squadmates cutting their float systems and dropping altitude before Kallen could turn her ire to them, the wave surger blocking a parting shot from one of the Gareth unit's hadron cannons, further depleting her energy levels.

The Glaston Knights, now outnumbered, quickly broke contact and fled, possibly also due to them running low on energy.

["Well done Q1, but we're not out of the woods yet."] Todoh noted as Kallen checked the datalink from their AWACS aircraft, some merc group working with Galm by the callsign of 'Eagle Eye'.

Sure enough, twelve enemy aircraft were screaming straight towards them from further east at roughly the speed of sound, with a group of slower contacts coming from the west, two of which bore the IFFs assigned to Knights of the Round.

Kallen smirked, trying to hide her fear at the thought of facing two more Rounds. "Fine by me, I've still got plenty of energy left."

["You say that now."] Chiba muttered over the comms.

["Cut the chatter, we've got additional fighters taking off from the carrier."] Asahina observed as six F-14 Skyfangs roared into the air, backed by four F-15 Spitefuls.

The two lead aircraft fired their missiles, forcing the Knightmares to evade, dispensing flares and chaffsmoke from their air glide packs and torsos.

* * *

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

An explosion created by a shell from the _Ikaruga_ ripped open a hole in the floor of the now unshielded _Lohengrin_, sending a number of R1s and R2s falling to their certain destruction thousands of feet below on the ocean surface, C2 wincing as she remembered her own near miss with falling to her demise. "Right… Water's still matter, and landing on it from this altitude is only marginally better than hitting land…"

She really shouldn't have been fighting on the bottom decks but she'd gotten a bit carried away with pursuing a group of retreating enemies.

An energy bolt sizzled past her face, C2 responding and blowing the offending R1 Reploid's head clean off, its thin frame falling to the floor with a metallic clack as another trio of R1s continued firing.

She sighed, blocking their shots with her arm shield before ripping them apart with her return fire and clicking her comms.

"Status check."

["This is Digit, we were cut off from our initial retreat path to the hangar and we're still falling back, _way_ too many R2s to deal with. We'll be on your position in t-minus six commander."]

C2 swore and ducked as a grenade sailed over her head and bounced around a corner, her sensors indicating a burst of heat to her rear as it went off. "Fuck, they're bringing out explosives… Means they have enough confidence in the redundant systems to keep the ship airborne…" She growled as she swapped to the Grenade Soul and materialized an anti-tank munition, pulling the pin and tossing it down the hall before ducking behind her shield as it detonated, the blast flinging Reploid parts in her direction. Several dull thuds indicating sizable components had bounced off her shield. "Negative, re-route to Zero's position, I'll be there as soon as I can!" She ordered before switching channels.

"Zero! We need to cut this short! The mission's a bust!" She snapped over her radio as she broke contact and made for the closest elevator well.

* * *

Lelouch frowned as he heard C2's radio call. ="And you're certain that this is what you wish to do?"= He inquired as he began to back away, breaking the veil of silence that had filled the room.

"Yes, the way you're doing things is _wrong_ Zero. I can help the Japanese through peaceful means far better than you can through violence." Nunnally affirmed defiantly.

="I see, however it appears I no longer have the time to debate the merits of either of our approaches with you. I wish you luck your highness!"= He shouted cordially before he released a pair of spherical devices and a pair of cylinders from beneath his cloak as the R2s tensed, energy blades extending from their right arms and holding their shields in front of Nunnally to defend her from blastwave and shrapnel if necessary.

The flashbangs and smoke bombs exploded, startling Nunnally as Zero bolted. The R2s didn't give pursuit, prioritizing protecting her over attacking Zero.

* * *

Zero exited the room and hurried down the hallway to where Team 2 of Squad 7, whom were holding the line against a surge of R2s that were attempting to advance on their position, were. Lelouch feeling his heart pounding in his chest even as he gasped for air, thankful that Nemo had the redesigned mask feature improved breathability and comfort features, the previous one was utterly _suffocating_ at times. _"Exercise is a_ must_, all this running is going to kill me otherwise."_ He thought dryly as he came to a stop.

Golden eyes flashed over to him as C2 showed up seconds later, emerging from an elevator well that had been blown wide open. "Alright then, let's cut our losses and get the hell out of here!" C2 ordered as her gaze swept over to team 2. "Protect Zero while we withdraw to the hangar, I'll cover you! First Team re-route there as well"

["Roger that commander."] Digit acknowledged.

"Roger!" Razor acknowledged as she and the draconic-themed assault specialist, Lancer Drake, took point. Fixit and Hammer took up the rear position as they began the slow fighting withdrawal back to the hangar with C2 trailing behind.

* * *

On the Bridge, Darlton grunted as the ship lurched again, another engine taking a hit. "Maintain altitude if possible, if not, get us to something our float system can handle!" He ordered sharply, the helmsman nodding and commanding the ship to descend.

"Sir!" One of the bridge techs shouted as they looked up from their console. "Security reports that Zero's making a break for the starboard hangar!"

Darlton sneered. "Deploy the Hunters and Bigfoots to stop them!" He ordered. "Buy time for more R2s to move in!"

"Yes, My Lord!" The tech replied before giving the order.

* * *

Inside the Starboard Hangar, six F-6t Bigfoots came to life, backed by nearly three dozen G-02S Shield Hunter mechaniloids, which unfolded from their stored positions on the ceiling and dropped to the floor before they began to thump their way towards the Grunt Reploids defending the hangar, raising their arms and unleashing a hail of bullets on their adversaries. Whom dove for cover and returned fire with their buster cannons.

Zero, C2, and a now reunified Squad Seven rushed into the firefight, Lelouch swearing behind his mask as he dove for cover behind a docked UV-1. Armor piercing rounds tore through its airframe and reminded Lelouch of the difference between concealment and cover as he hit the deck proper this time.

["Zero! You're a sitting duck out here, get to the Shinkiro! Everyone else provide covering fire!"] C2 snapped over the radio due to the wind whipping past them from the open hangar doors as she activated both of her busters and laid down two streams of automatic energy fire on the enemy force, ripping through a Hunter's shield and then tearing the machine's armored body apart.

Zero nodded and rushed for the Knightmare's boarding line as fast as he could, which wasn't _very_ fast considering Lelouch was utterly unathletic. A Bigfoot spotted him and ID'd the Shinkiro as the greatest overall threat, its missile pods opening up and preparing to fire.

Why it didn't just fire its chaingun at him C2 had no idea, though that specific unit appeared to have been in the midst of being armed when shit hit the fan.

C2 rapidly charged her right arm's buster using her pre-charged capacitor cells and fired a shot into the armored 'cockpit' area of the optionally-manned Mechaniloid walker in mere seconds, destroying the machine's control systems and causing it to slump to the floor in a heap just as it discharged its missiles. Which skipped off the deck, armed, and then exploded violently as one of them struck a Hunter in the foot, setting off a chain reaction that consumed several of the mechaniloids and a deck handling tractor with a partially empty fuel trailer attached to it, creating a sudden inferno that buffeted the combatants with the shock of it flaring into existance. Alarms immediately flared to life as the forward hangar doors began to slide shut to prevent wind interference with the fire suppression systems.

Glancing out the hangar she could see the _Ikaruga_ approaching rapidly, linear guns firing away at the _Lohengrin _even as one of the warship's slash harkens speared a Britannian Cobra gunship out of the air.

She had her opening now.

_"Gotta time this right, and hope Inoue doesn't have the ship maneuver... Otherwise I'm fucked. I_ really _don't know the range on that mode._" She thought as she returned her attention to the enemy.

The Shinkiro rocketed forwards and jammed the port-side door open with one of its knee slash harkens, the rocket anchor slowly grinding downwards as it began to lose its battle with the door mechanisms. ["Hurry! I can't hold the door open for long!"] Lelouch snapped after tearing his helmet off as the tiltrotor's engines thrummed to life and it taxied towards the exit, Squad 7 hurrying aboard.

Metabee stopped and looked back to see C2 continuing to fire away at the Mechaniloids just as the first of the R2s and R1s arrived from inside the ship itself, the stream being cut off at around forty units by bulkhead doors slamming shut to help starve the fire of oxygen from deeper inside the vessel.

["Yo! C2! C'mon!"] He shouted.

["Go, I'll be right along!"] She hissed as she stooped low and kept the enemy's attention on her with another volley of shots.

["But!"] Metabee shouted as the tiltrotor's engines revved up.

["JUST GO!"]

He jumped and ran for the closing rear ramp of the tiltrotor, leaping aboard just before it would've been too high to make the jump without being pulled aboard.

The aircraft shot forwards as the pilots hit war emergency power and roared out of the hangar bay in the midst of transition to level flight as they ascended, the Shinkiro following just before the doors closed too much for it to escape.

C2 turned to face her opponents as the hanger was sealed off from the outside world, swapped to the Shadow Soul, flipped them the bird, and then vanished after she leapt into the shadows cast by a CV-47's interior in the pale red emergency lighting as the oxygen was vented from the hangar.

The Mechaniloids and Diminished Reploids ceased firing as the fire suppression systems flared to life to douse the remaining flames, chattering away in electronic tones as they attempted to locate the target, powering down their weapons systems as they failed to do so despite triple scans of the hangar via datalink.

* * *

**West Pacific Airspace.**

["This is Zero to all forces! Withdraw immediately!"] Came the order over a force-wide channel.

Todoh grimaced as the ADF-01, running low on fuel for its engines due to extended use of its float system and Blaze Luminous against Scarface squadron, turned and fled back to the enemy _Morrigan_-class just as a new group of fighters arrived.

**AQUILA**

**Royal Britannian Air Force**

**156th Imperial Guards Wing 1st Fighter Squadron**

Twelve single-seat X-02A Wyverns arrayed in a V formation centered on an aircraft marked with a yellow 013 just below the cockpit roared towards the Black Knights as they began to withdraw.

["Aquila 1 to all Aquilas, engage at your discretion."] Marseille ordered.

["Sir."] The yellows replied as they split off into three finger-four formations, beginning to pick out their targets via radar.

* * *

["Oh_ crap_, it's the Yellows."] One of the Scarface members gasped in unpleasant shock as Lelouch scowled at the incoming contacts on the TACNET.

["The who now?"] Kallen mumbled.

["Aquila Squadron, more infamously known as Yellow Squadron due to their aircraft markings. Each of these pilots was handpicked for the unit by their leader, a man trained by General Shilage, the former Knight of Eight… Which explains why Yellow 13 is in the running to become a Round... Plus they're all flying one of those experimental models like the one Mister X was flying at Pendragon."] Pixy explained without his usual smugness in his voice. ["I'd say this lit a fire under our asses to get the hell out of here if there wasn't one before."] He muttered as he and Cipher banked and began to pull out of the fight.

["New contacts approaching, multiple Spitfires, Lionels, Vincents, Bors, Gareths, Brightons, Galatines, and Vincent Ward series models led by two units identified as Mordred and Tristain, it's the Knight of Six and the Knight of Three with their personal forces."] Inoue reported.

["Oh… Yeah leaving sounds nice about now…"] Kallen squeaked nervously as she turned and accelerated away, no longer wishing to face fighter pilots roughly equivalent to Knights of the Round in _addition_ to a pair of actual Rounds.

That was too much even for her. Especially with her energy filler almost depleted yet again.

Which was rapidly becoming a problem as Rakshata tacked more equipment onto the Guren.

["Zero, enemy units are pursuing!"] Inoue reported as Lelouch held his trusty detonator in hand.

"Ah, but they won't be for long." He chuckled as he flicked the safety cover up and pressed the button.

* * *

From the ocean's surface, dozens of surface to air missiles blasted into the sky from VLS cells on floating arsenal pods laid by the three transport airships he'd brought along for this express purpose, in addition to them serving on rescue duty for downed pilot and aircrew.

Detaching their boosters and firing their second stages, the missiles arrived at the target altitude and detonated in the midst of the enemy formation, brilliant bolts of energy crackling from the effects of their low yield Gefjun Net warheads and frying the electrical control circuits of many of the Knightmares and fighters as Yellow squadron hit full afterburn and barely managed to get clear of the blast radii, cockpit pods and ejector seats shooting away from doomed machines via mechanical backups as they spiraled towards the pacific. The airships barely clung to life due to redundant systems and EMP hardening, and even they were forced to descend due to power failures, one badly damaged _Caerleon's_ crew beginning to abandon ship as it lost altitude far faster than the others.

Rakshata may not have been able to miniaturize the tech enough to fit it on a mini missile usable by Knightmares. But unbeknownst to Kallen, naval surface to air missiles the diameter of _telephone poles_ could easily handle the payload,_ especially_ with a booster attached.

Lelouch keeled forwards before heaving himself back, unleashing a torrent of laughter inside the Shinkiro's cockpit as he watched the Britannian fleet fall into utter disarray. "Well done, all forces, withdraw to assigned rendezvous point, we've accomplished our primary and tertiary objectives today." He chuckled once he'd finished, much to the confusion of his troops.

* * *

**HIMAS **_**Lohengrin**_**, en-route to Area 11, West Pacific Ocean.**

One of Darlton's subordinates turned to face him. "Should we pursue?" He inquired.

The General shook his head. "No, it'd be a waste of time and manpower, we've suffered too much damage anyways. Focus on recovering the survivors and performing repairs, bring the alert level down, Zero won't be coming at us for another go with our reinforcements inbound." He stated calmly before turning to a green trimmed R2 unit. "Good work out there by the way, are you sure they didn't suspect you?"

The Reploid shifted form until it had taken on a very different appearance, a camouflage painted Reploid leopard in military gear. "No sir, I couldn't stop them but I was able to delay them long enough to prevent Zero from getting to the Viceroy before the ADF-01 had launched." Vine Jaguar reported, his eyes shadowed by the brow of his helmet. "Though to be fair, I doubt even I would've lasted long against my template in a straight up fight."

"That's all I could've asked of you." Darlton replied as he gazed out the bridge windows as the _Lohengrin's_ altitude stabilized.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**USJS **_**Ikaruga**_**, Pacific Airspace near Indonesia.**

Squad 7 slumped about in the break room, mentally drained from their exertions aboard the _Lohengrin_. Particularly Metabee for being forced to leave their CO behind.

"I just wish… I could've done something! A few seeker missiles and some plasma blasts and wham! I'd've blown those suckers sky high!" He growled as he slumped in his seat, green optic lenses narrowed and arms crossed.

"Metabee…" Digit began lazily.

"Don't tell me I couldn't taken them!"

"Metabee."

"Seriously! Like, none of you guys even tried! You left the boss to-" He snapped as he shot to his feet.

Only to be shoved back down.

"Left me to what?" C2's voice asked sweetly as she held him in place.

Metabee's head tilted back and he locked eyes with her, C2 still using the Shadow Soul and looking very much like a robotic ninja as a result.

The KBT type Reploid promptly fainted after chittering like the Rhinoceros Beetles he was based on.

"Damn, I thought I'd get the chance to explain the Shadow Soul to him." She muttered indifferently.

"So... How did you get back to the ship?" Digit asked.

C2 winced. "I got lucky that the _Ikaruga_ was on a close pass with the enemy battlecruiser and managed to teleport into one of the laundry rooms with the Shadow Soul. Let me tell you right now that Tamaki's socks smell absolutely _horrendous_."

The other Reploids, barring the ever stoic Rokusho, recoiled at the thought.

* * *

Ohgi sighed as he reclined in a briefing room chair. "Cutting it a little close, weren't you Zero?"

="I didn't have many options."= He said candidly. ="I certainly wasn't expecting those drones at all."=

Tamaki reclined in his seat. "What the hell even was that anyways? The amount of coincidental stuff occurring seemed almost like a video game!" He grumbled.

Lelouch chuckled behind his mask at the thought as Kallen walked inside with Shirley and C2 in tow.

="Now that everyone's here, does anyone have any further grievances to get off their chest?"= He inquired.

Tamaki began to open his mouth.

="Anyone _except_ Tamaki."= He clarified, not willing to deal with that specific headache at the moment.

Tamaki closed his mouth.

"I believe I speak for all of us when I say our ability to trust you has waned significantly Zero, in spite of your speech some days ago restoring some of it. This operation admittedly did little to help with that." Todoh remarked as he crossed his arms.

Zero turned to look at him. ="I understand Colonel, I've been attempting to address the mistakes I made in Tokyo since I returned. C2 made that point rather clear to me the day prior."= He admitted warily.

The Reploid grinned smugly as Todoh nodded, conceding he wouldn't get much more out of Zero without the room becoming unnecessarily combative.

Ohgi spoke up. "Zero, what did you mean by, we've completed primary and tertiary objectives?"

="Our primary objective was to discover the Viceroy's political alignment and her plans, our secondary was to destroy elite enemy units, which we failed to do, as mostly regulars were shot down or caught in the Gefjun blasts, tertiary was to cripple the enemy air flotilla, which was a success. That entire force will be out of action for some time, with one airship sunk by all appearances. While our own force suffered damage and losses, it inflicted disproportionate damage on the enemy thanks to us rapidly forcing them into a close-range fight they were not anticipating to engage in."

Inoue and Sugiyama looked at eachother while Minami and Suzue also exchanged glances.

"On the subject of the Viceroy, what _would_ her plans be?" Senba asked.

Zero glanced around the room, letting the tension build for dramatic effect before speaking. ="She informed me that she plans to re-found the Special Administrative Zone of Japan."= He stated plainly and without flair.

The room_ immediately_ burst into angry shouting from the Japanese members of the Black Knights' command staff, many shooting to their feet in anger and shock.

Tamaki was predictably the first to get his take in. "Bullshit!"

"They think that crap is going to fool us again!?" Chiba snarled as she slammed her fist on the table. "Of all the nerve!"

"What kind of idiots do they take the Japanese for!?" Minami snapped as he shot to his feet as well. "They had their chance and they used it to try and _genocide_ us!" He said, waving his arm to the side dismissively.

"We're not listening to their lies anymore!" Suzue, one of the last surviving members of the Yamato Alliance, agreed angrily as she stomped her foot on the carpet.

"Yeah!" Sugiyama shouted. "They can take their SAZ and go straight to hell!"

Todoh remained silent, having interacted with Nunnally and Lelouch before the invasion enough to get an impression for how the two were as people. Even if said interactions had been only for brief moments while he was tutoring Suzaku due to the young Prince having normally kept his vulnerable sister away from prying eyes.

Urabe, knowing the truth behind Zero's identity and thus the probable reason for Nunnally trying to re-create the SAZ, to give the Japanese a sense of self once more owing to her living in the country for years, also said nothing.

Ohgi likewise stayed his tongue, though that was more due to contemplation than anything. Beneath the calm exterior he presented his rage boiled just as furiously as the others.

Inoue simply clicked her tongue, remembering what happened to Yoshida, Izumi, and most of what remained of the Yamato Alliance in the aftermath of that debacle.

So many comrades dead, and for what?

Kallen, knowing that Nunnally was likely being honest, said nothing. Even if the idea of the SAZ aggravated her as well.

"Is she just like Euphemia or just stupid?" Inoue muttered under her breath as her burn scars began to itch at the memory of why she even got them in the first place.

C2 glanced at Zero, hiding her worry behind a mask and wondering how Lelouch was taking the indirect and direct insults towards Nunnally, even if he agreed that her plan was somewhat foolish and naïve.

="The Viceroy means well, as she was not raised among her siblings, but rather in _Japan_ for much of her life. A relatively simple deduction to make considering that the last place she was seen alive until recently was that nation. Which implies she truly _cares_ for the Japanese people."= He explained, raising a hand in a placating gesture.

The Black Knights fell silent at his words. "So what, are we…" Minami began nervously.

Zero quickly interrupted him. ="No, we're _not_ supporting this unless we **absolutely** have to in order to advance our own cause. Despite the intent being true this time, it would practically be a surrender. The Britannians would undoubtedly demand total disarmament from our forces given what occurred last time, an unacceptable concession given the blood, oil, sweat, and tears we've spent rebuilding. Nor would the SAZ change anything. And unlike Euphemia, Nunnally is a relative unknown. Most of the Britannian public has believed she was dead for nearly a _decade_ and therefore lost interest in her, while the Japanese reasonably have no interest in trying their luck a second time."= Zero told them. ="So even if Cornelia is protecting her from the nobles, she cannot afford to spend the political capital on a pipe dream, nor will Schneizel spend more of his than necessary at this juncture considering the Britannians are unable to confirm our strength."=

"So we stay the course then." C2 finished for him.

He nodded at her as Nemo walked in, Lelouch cursing her for being late, _again_.

="Now, I have several plans of action already drawn up, and I need input on how to further develop them, some are conventional… Others are in my _usual_ form."= Zero stated as he sat down at the head of the table, C2 standing at his side.

"Hmph, about time we got some more input." Ohgi said good-naturedly as grin formed on his face, even as Todoh raised an eyebrow.

="Indeed, it has been a long time coming."= Zero agreed as he pulled out several charts that had been provided by Diethard earlier depicting force deployment and civilian population distribution in Area 11. ="I hope this is a good tangible first step towards regaining the trust I lost at Tokyo."=

"We'll see. One action does not a change in and of itself indicate a change in attitude." Chiba said plainly, Zero nodding in agreement.

It would just be too easy otherwise, after all, his subordinates are human, no... _Sapient_ he corrected, remembering C2 and all of the Reploids that had joined up, and thus subject to the same failings as he.

One step at a time as the old saying went.

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**Unknown Location.**

Serges strode into his quarters, if it could be called that and not a personal workshop, and walked up to a bookshelf that held some old mementos from a time that had never been and yet had.

Stopping idly, he glanced over at an image he'd recovered from the destroyed Ra Moon's databanks some time after the global geomagnetic field incident in 20XX. An image of himself as Wily toasting the construction of an immense egg-shaped flying fortress bearing his old skull logo with a rather tall yet rotund man in a red and black suit who bore an absurdly large orange moustache.

He was still concerned as to _how_ Ra Moon had evaded being affected by the Genesis Wave, chalking it up to the alien supercomputer's almost arcane, and at times god-like, technology.

"Hmph, I wonder how Ivo is faring… Knowing that maniac he probably desires my death and has _still _failed to beat that hedgehog… Though perhaps I should thank him for the idea of uploading my consciousness into a robotic form, it was a rather innovative idea, especially after time began to do what Light and his little brat refused to…"

He shook his head, some of his memories were still fuzzy thanks to Eggman's refusal to admit defeat, the other man likely interfering with Sonic's attempt to rectify his own timeline, which very possibly had repercussions in 20XX. "In hindsight, I should've been more cautious about my ambitions… And the allies I chose." He mused aloud.

Naturally he and Ivo wouldn't have been satisfied with only _two_ realities under their control, Ivo even more so than him given the madman's tendencies, and as such they'd used the chaos emeralds as a sort of divining tool to witness other universes.

One of those worlds ironically had been an iteration of this very one, before the merger with the 20XX timeline of course. The time he'd spent lingering on its marvelous feats of macro-engineering and combat robotics in turn seem to have attracted the attention of higher powers to his own timeline. With the existence of such arcane things as the Thought Elevators, he'd theorized soon enough that this plane the 20XX timeline had merged with indeed had _actual_ deities, or at least entities close enough to them in terms of the power scale.

Naturally without evidence he couldn't support this theory, as it seemed that they held themselves to a classical non-intervention policy if they did exist.

Still, dealing with that was _somehow_ an easier prospect than facing innumerable and increasingly aggravated worlds he supposed as he pulled out a book of designs and schematics he'd been saving for some time, now that the requisite parts were coming in, he could begin to rebuild his greatest creation to his full specifications.

The title name for the project read: **DWN-∞**.

_Mega Man Zero_.

Opening it, Serges grinned as he looked over some of the things he'd planned out, an advanced beam saber of more significant power than the models used by the Hunters, an improved buster cannon with secondary rapid-fire emitters, reinforced armor plating with additional coverage on the shoulders and torso, improved components to increase speed, strength, dexterity, balance, and agility. Additional armor packages in the event Light or Cossack, or Lalinde he supposed given the existence of her last daughter, one-upped him. Cognitive improvements to streamline Zero's thought processes and reduce reaction time further, and so much more.

Among the extras were high powered rhomboid shaped energy shield and a visual scan-based copy system, based on features from Ivo's deadly Metal Sonic robot, another thing he'd have to 'thank' him for if they ever managed to bridge the gaps between time and space and connect their universes again.

Right before he stomped that egg-themed madman out before his fellow engineer and scientist could do the same to _him_.

To be fair those weren't the_ first_ ideas he'd stolen from Mobius and put into practice here, the Bigfoot line of heavy Mechaniloids and the more varied G-series models were blatantly ripped off and improved from stolen copies of G.U.N.'s own designs that'd been provided by Eggman during their partnership. Designs he'd spent quite some time pouring over during the construction of the Wily Egg.

But he digressed as he righted his train of thought.

All he had to do for Zero now was throw in his precious Twin Gear system, specifically the upgraded version he'd prototyped by using C2 as unknowing guinea pig, up his reactor limiter's threshold and retool the cooling system to compensate, and he'd have the greatest fighting robot ever built!

There was a pang of doubt, and briefly he considered if this was the legacy he wished to leave, if he was letting Light _win_ by simply continuing as he'd always had and subjecting his Magnum Opus, the only one of his creations he'd ever felt comfortable relating to anywhere _near_ the same way Light did his brats, to the same fate as Bass and Forte, stopgap knockoffs that were so focused on their goal of destroying their opponent as to be worthless should they actually succeed due to a lack of motivation afterwards.

He brushed it aside. Sigma, Britannia, the Black Knights, everyone really. They had _no idea_ what he was capable of. And with any luck, by the time they _did_, it would be far too late for anyone to stop him.

Unless Light's youngest brat decided to take up his older brother's mantle... But even still, he couldn't hold a candle to Zero once he was _completed_. And Shadow Man was keeping an eye on him anyways to see if he knew anything.

"I'm through playing games, it's time to get _serious_." Serges chuckled darkly as he strode out of his quarters and back to the workshop where he would continue to begin his grand designs anew.

He paused briefly as he remembered something, a manic grin growing on his face. "And maybe, I'll have Shadow Man go investigate a certain anomaly while I'm at it."

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**USJS **_**Ikaruga**_**, Pacific Airspace near Indonesia.**

C2 stared at her drink in a moment of silent reflection, the nanite based liquor sitting before her on the counter of the bar in Zero's quarters, still and untouched, she couldn't even bring herself to drink it.

She'd left the meeting partway after they reached the casualty list for their recent operations, the clinically detached tone with which they spoke of death, of casualties reduced to numbers, statistics, had left her surprisingly shaken.

A fact further reinforced by the damage still being cleaned up, the still bloodstained corridors where men and women were triaged during the battle.

Why didn't they understand what was going on.

Then again, none of them were in the trenches anymore, they weren't routinely staring men and Reploids in the eyes as they were torn apart by energy fire, ripped into pieces by drills or special weapons, burned alive by flamethrowers, frozen to death by ice projectors, or generally mutilated whatever other weapons she used.

The worst they saw was at Tokyo, prior to that only _Inoue_ had ever actually fought Britannian forces as infantry in a full scale engagement rather than a skirmish or the nearly one-sided massacare that was Shinjuku. She at least witnessed the bloody toll of battle from outside the clinical safety of a Knightmare's cockpit.

Before the Uprising she herself hadn't paid much thought to the mountain of corpses she left behind every time she engaged in a full-scale battle, the blood unnerved her yes and she often wondered if she couldn't work more efficiently. But after seeing what _other_ Reploids were capable of when they went as far, or _further_, than she often did… At the time C2 genuinely didn't know if she still had the stomach for the killing.

Clearly she did but she nevertheless tended to focus on the non-sapient R1 and R2 Reploids if she had the choice.

She admitted she wasn't being particularly fair to Ohgi and the others, but the Reploid doubted they'd seen _nearly_ as much bloodshed firsthand as she had.

And it wasn't just X rubbing off on her either, during her flight from the Britannian homeland after Pendragon, she'd found a hellish refuge in what turned out to have once been a packed shopping mall where she could barely go six feet without almost tripping over corpses. Men, women, children, many of the animals in the pet stores even, all slaughtered by a horde of viral Mavericks, Reploids driven to psychopathy by the Maverick Virus, solely for _being there_ and left to rot along with any Reploids who wouldn't join their cause.

And then there were the rats, the crows, and the flies, feasting on the dead like the opportunistic bastards they were, maggots and other larvae writhing under decaying flesh as they devoured the organic deceased from the inside out. C2 felt nauseous just _thinking_ about it.

She'd immolated the entire _complex_ just to save those poor souls the indignity of waiting for their bodies to be ripped apart long before the area was secure enough for them to be buried.

It was far from the only scene like that she'd bore witness to either, nor the last time she'd have to set a building ablaze with tears in her eyes.

Eventually the tears had stopped, and the burnings had become automatic, driven by reflex. And that worried her because it meant that tragedy had become _routine_ during that period.

Mavericks rarely left humans in a state that allowed her to get them to medical care quickly enough to save them either.

The aftermath of the SAZ at least had burials performed quickly enough, even if they were hastily dug mass graves.

She now had a healthy appreciation for what Lelouch and Suzaku had gone through, how they remained sane despite being so young when experiencing such horror was beyond her.

They were both dumbasses, especially Suzaku, but they deserved at least that much acknowledgement.

There were soft footfalls behind her and then a hand was placed on her armored shoulder, the Reploid jumping in surprise.

Lelouch frowned as he noticed the look in her eyes. "You look like you've been through hell." He said, dead serious.

She turned away.

"It's…" She began before biting her lip. "How did you and Suzaku do it?"

"Do what?" He inquired, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Come out of that hell in Japan somewhat… Normal?" She clarified, looking back over at him, now noticing Nemo behind him. "Hardened soldiers would have had nightmares after wading through fields of decaying bodies. And yet two ten-year-olds…"

Lelouch shook his head and sat down. "Another mask." He admitted readily. "I still sometimes have nightmares about those days. I just try to forget, if only to help me sleep. Especially after my mistake with Euphemia dragged it all back up…"

She turned back to Lelouch. "Fuck, I…" She dispelled her helmet and rubbed her temple with one of her hands, ear antenna folding back subconsciously as a result of her emotional distress. "It's…"

"It's not something you can describe well is it? The bodies, the flies, the rats, the crows and other scavengers having their way with the dead, then there's the smell, you don't ever really forget something like that." He intoned softly.

"No… It's just burned into my memory banks, all of it is… I saw so many scenes like that… And then I look at all the blood on my own hands and wonder how the hell I can claim to be better than the Mavericks when I'm a hypocrite who just keeps killing even as all the death I've caused grinds down on me. And every day I have to put on a face and pretend I'm functioning perfectly fine for everyone else's sake, because god knows if I break down in front of them…" She choked out, a hand covering her eyes as she began to sob. "Even X doesn't know… How many times I've seriously considered blowing my own reactor during that time because I couldn't take it anymore, there were just so _many_ places full of bodies left behind by Mavericks... And I couldn't do _anything_ but immolate the _corpses_ to give them some dignity!" She managed before totally breaking down.

Lelouch gently rubbed her back plating as she cried, not sure what to say at this point.

Nemo just stood there, mostly coming off as indifferent as the Reploid sobbed. In reality she was quite unnerved by the parallel between the original C.C.'s suffering and that of her Reploid counterpart.

Though the former's was a bit more physical than psychological.

Lelouch exhaled. "I guess it's high time I got some psychologists lined up for further investigation into their merits." He muttered. "Between you, myself, Shirley, and Kallen we're an absolute mess. It's nothing short of a miracle that we can even function, though I doubt it'll be much help in the end since a lot of our troubles can't be revealed even under confidentiality. That and I'm not sure how quickly I can work through everything on top of running this rebellion."

"Hmph, you've done your fair share of scarring, Cornelia and Suzaku notably." Nemo pointed out dryly.

Lelouch glared at her. "Of that, I am well aware."

C2 rubbed her eyes and wiped her cheeks, finally starting to calm down.

"C2." He intoned softly as he looked over at her.

She glanced over at him, were she human her eyes would've been red from the tears. "Yeah…?"

"I need you to head to the Tokyo Settlement, get yourself disguised and stay in contact in case I need to give you additional orders. I vaguely remember some things from before the uprising about me being at Ashford, so I want you to go investigate further if necessary."

She nodded softly. "Heh, some homecoming I guess."

Lelouch gave her a gentle smile.

"_I lost so much last time because I couldn't build a rapport with my inner circle and selfishly tended to my own desires over our objectives, I'm _not_ letting that happen again."_

Without his memories of a timeline that had been, of knowledge of events that had almost occurred were it not for the want of a nail, Lelouch didn't know how true that thought rang.

* * *

Zero strode into his office with Nemo in tow.

Urabe, Kallen, and a very nervous looking Shirley were waiting for him.

The others turned to face the pensive girl, whom sighed.

"What's going on?" Lelouch asked as he took off his mask.

Shirley wrung her hands nervously. "It's about that Blue Lionel…"

"Yes, and?"

"Rivalz is piloting it…" She admitted with a heavy heart.

Lelouch's hands fell to the side, the young man feeling as if he'd been struck.

"Wh… What…?" Lelouch gaped. "Why…?"

"That's… What I _don't_ know… Clearly something happened during the Uprising that caused him to enlist when he came of age, and Britannia did blame the extensive casualties in Area 11 during Storm Eagle's attack on the aftermath of the Black Rebellion." Shirley conceded, deciding not the bring up Milly for the moment due to it being speculative.

Lelouch sighed and deflated visibly as he managed to regain his senses. "Wonderful, and unlike Suzaku he hasn't done anything to warrant our ire either…"

"We're not going to have to kill him… Are we…?" Shirley mumbled quietly.

"If it comes to that, we may not have a choice." Kallen uttered as she looked away.

Nobody said anything, Urabe knowing that it wasn't really his place to say anything while Nemo just observed.

"C2 was right… Our lives really do 'fucking suck'…" He bemoaned as he sat down in his chair.

Nobody disagreed with him.

Kallen slumped onto a couch and sighed. "It was so much simpler back when we were just another insurgent group…" She noted resentfully. "It's like the universe is out to get us."

"I suppose that's the price we pay for challenging the very nature of the world. The world finds every way it can to bite back." Lelouch muttered sardonically.

Urabe sighed as well. "Is this what it's always like?" He asked.

"Only when it gets depressing." Nemo gibed, causing Urabe to shrug.

Shirley locked eyes with Lelouch and then glanced away remorsefully. "Shirley, I'm not mad at you…"

"Still, I shouldn't have held onto this for so long…" She said softly. "Maybe… Maybe I could've…" She began as tears rolled down her face, Lelouch standing up and striding over to her before giving the girl a hug.

"It'll be alright, we'll figure out what's going on, and I know just the place to start looking."

"Wh… Where…?"

Kallen and Nemo glanced at eachother and then looked at Lelouch while Urabe knew immediately what he meant.

"Where everything started and ended two years ago."

* * *

"In Tokyo."

* * *

**June 15, 2019 ATB.**

**Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

X walked past a police cordon towards the site where a local detachment of Maverick Hunters was standing guard near an old supermarket that had been sitting abandoned since the Uprising.

"How many were there trooper?" He asked one of the closer Hunters.

"Hard to say sir, maybe a couple dozen, most of them weren't armed but they were all viral based on the psychotic shouting, the Police couldn't deal with them and the army can't be bothered." The Reploid explained after saluting X, having not initially recognized him due to his use of the Light Armor again, having re-equipped it after discovering that C2 was using her modified Lalinde Armor in battle.

Mostly to avoid the impression that he wasn't taking her seriously.

The white, blue and gold armored Reploid frowned as he turned back towards the crime scene and strode inside, looking around at overturned shelves, shattered displays and shopping carts, crushed checkout stands.

A rat skittered past him, X's face scrunching up in disgust.

"Did we remove the evidence already?" He asked over comms, deciding shouting wasn't worth the distraction it would cause.

["Yes sir, not much reason to go in there anymore."] One of the grunts reported.

X frowned as he glanced around, surely there had been some kind of reason they'd have picked this place over the mostly abandoned ghettos, but what? Patrols were no less tight in the settlement proper and response times were much lower to boot, was it just a bunch of brain addled mavericks unable to form a coherent plan…

Or were they bait, intended to draw attention away from a more dangerous operation?

That was up to the analysts and detectives he supposed as he turned and strode out.

He stopped briefly and looked back at the ruined supermarket's interior. _"Are we heroes keeping the peace? Or just weapons to be pointed at our enemies…"_

He wondered what Doctor Light would think of what things were devolving into.

X very much doubted his 'father' would be happy about the state of the world.

Even if he'd been paying attention, X would never noticed Shadow Man skulking behind a hidden corner, the Ninja-like upgraded Robot Master vanishing as he slid back into the shadows from which he took his name.

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Jotaro Maeda managed to rush into line in front of his Guren Mark I Kai, having been called up by Captain Kozuki for inspection alongside the other members of Zero Squad inside the unit's hangar.

To his right, he heard Hina Mizuno squeal as Zero himself strode up to their machines, flanked by the Captain and his ever-inscrutable advisor, Nemo.

The four pilots saluted.

Zero gave them a curt nod as he inspected them and their machines before checking an appraisement of their combat record on his tablet. ="Good, very good, a shame you haven't had more chances to show off your skills to the Britannians."= He praised.

"Thank you, sir!" The squad's second, Kanbe Sazama stated proudly.

Jotaro frowned pensively, wondering why Zero had chosen now of all times to personally inspect the unit. Even during the Black Rebellion he'd paid little notice to them.

It was Reira Kamata, the last of the four remaining members of Zero Squad who'd survived the Maverick Uprising who voiced his thoughts. "Pardon my asking, but why chose now of all times to inspect our unit? Wouldn't Captain Kozuki's reports be sufficient?" She asked.

The mask turned to face her. ="Under previous circumstances yes… But I realized something after my return, what sort of leader am I if I don't even personally know my own elite guard's names, let alone what they look like? And how can I entrust my life to them if I can't even trust them with my identity?"= He asked the young woman.

Reira blinked as the other three members of Zero squad glanced at eachother, wondering what the sudden change was about. "I... don't… Under..." He mumbled, confused as all hell.

He chuckled and shook his head. ="Kallen, is the bay secure?"=

The redhead snapped to and nodded. "Squad Seven is keeping it under total lockdown. C2 already fried any bugs present before she left as per your orders."

He nodded back at her before reaching up and removing the mask, the mechanism sliding up to allow him to remove the object, before pulling down the ballistic weave undermask below it.

Jotaro knew Zero was young… But he didn't know _how_ young.

Now he was faced by a young Britannian man barely out of his teenage years, an admittedly handsome one with piercing violet eyes. "Behold, the true face of _this _Zero." He announced, choosing his words carefully to reinforce the idea that Zero was a **symbol**, not an_ individual_.

Hina looked like she was about to orgasm, her obsession with bishonen was well known amongst the squad, to know that their leader was technically one was probably almost too much for the girl to handle.

Sazama frowned and narrowed his eyes. "Why trust us with this?" The man asked, as pragmatic as ever.

"It's simple." Zero said as he strode down the line. "As I've said before, I must be able to trust my elite guard _intimately_."

"Not like that Warrant Officer Mizuno!" Kallen barked sharply mere microseconds after the word 'intimately' left his mouth, causing the young man to sigh in exasperation as a wry smirk formed on Nemo's face at the young woman's abortive and overly gleeful response.

"Anyways, a praetorian guard is entrusted to know all but the deepest secrets of those whom they are charged to protect, they must be willing to lay down their lives for this individual, even if they do not necessarily_ agree_ with them." Zero explained as he looked back at the four. "And that is why I am entrusting you my identity. For weren't all of you chosen for your skills _and_ loyalty to Zero?" He asked them.

"Your identity…?" Reira whispered softly.

A smug grin formed on Zero's face. "Why yes… For my identity could very well shatter the Black Knights were it to become public knowledge." He explained, sending a chill down the spines of Zero squad. "For you see, I am Lelouch vi Britannia, the Prince who dared to stand before his own father, the Emperor, and call him out for inaction in investigating the death of his mother, and was disinherited and exiled to Japan as a political prisoner for his impudence, only to be killed during the invasion… Or so the _official_ line went." He chuckled at that.

"Let it be known that I _detest_ Britannia and all of her cruelty and excesses as much as any of you, for I witnessed firsthand the suffering and death dealt to the Japanese as I waded through fields of corpses, carrying my little sister, left blind and crippled from the attack that claimed my mother's life, on my back after escaping a Britannian airstrike on the Kururugi shrine. Every. Single. One. Of. Us are _victims_ of the system which currently governs Britannia." He informed them, carefully spelling out his reasoning to ensure that the point got through.

They were loyal to Zero yes, but he couldn't be sure if they would follow him knowing that the current iteration was a Britannian Prince.

They remained silent as he let what he told them sink in, watching disbelief, shock, and then righteous anger flood across their faces.

Jotaro finally spoke up. "I can… See why you hid your identity…"

"Indeed, I entrust you with this knowledge, so that I can fully entrust you with my _life._ I can't do that if I treat you like cogs. You are Zero's protectors. If Kallen is the fist, Todoh the sword, Nemo the dagger, and C2 the sledgehammer, then _you_ are the shield." Lelouch informed them. "I require you to be of the utmost skill and readiness for this role."

They snapped to attention. "We won't let you down sir!" Sazama shouted.

"Good, because the four of you are to be of much greater strategic importance now, and thus will be included in our high-level mission planning sessions. Ask Captain Urabe for more details, he's aware of my identity as well, having seen me without my mask during the rescue at Temple Tower." Lelouch told them as he strode off, allowing the four to recuperate and discuss what they'd been told, checking his tablet to look at new candidates before leaning in close to Kallen once they were out of earshot after spotting one of interest. "Who's this Benio Akagi girl?" He asked her.

"She's one of the recruits from when we were first setting up in India. Her first Knightmare was actually a Burai converted from the old Glasgow I used during our early days. The one that replaced the unit I lost in Shinjuku before we got that Burai." The redhead informed him. "She's a capable pilot and her skills are quite honestly wasted in an Akatsuki or even a Meigetsu. I think Rakshata is actually making her a custom unit or something due to that."

"I see, what's her story…?"

"Her parents were killed during the SAZ debacle… Crushed by debris thrown up by Britannian troops firing on eachother in the chaos. Apparently, I saved her from one of the Sutherlands that was following Euphemia's orders."

"She's been trying to follow Kallen around like a lost duckling ever since she joined up." Nemo added bluntly. "And Kallen dotes on her like a younger sibling."

Lelouch frowned even as Kallen glared at the blond immortal. "That's certainly a mark against her… While she's skilled I can't rely on someone with such severe mental issues who can't even recognize their own problem… Still, I'll consider her."

"What do you mean…?"

"What I mean is that from what little I know about her, she sees you as this messianic figure, you're the avenging angel in her eyes. I am merely he who gives you orders." Lelouch explained. "Zero is a symbol yes, but opposing cults of personality may prove to be problematic in the long run if one of my orders gets you or Todoh hurt, captured, or killed if I make a bad call."

"I didn't know you learned how to psychoanalyze people." Kallen snarked dryly.

Lelouch turned away, the lines on his face making him look like he'd suddenly aged fifty years in an instant as he spoke. "Kallen… What did you witness during the Uprising…?"

"There was a lot of death yeah, but I really didn't see anything worse than the SAZ, most of the Mavericks were focused on the Soviets, Europa, China proper, Australia, and Britannia rather than India." The redhead admitted, unsure as to what Lelouch was leading into.

"Well C2 got the worst of it. What she witnessed during those months of hell was enough to make her seriously contemplate _suicide_ on several occasions. I was worried about her issues to begin with, which is why I'd taken the liberty of trying to study up on psychology during what little free time I've had since my return, and admittedly I'd dabbled with it a bit at Ashford out of concern for Nunnally. Clearly at least _one_ of my concerns was warranted."

The expression on Kallen's face went blank. "Holy shit…" She whispered. "I didn't think…"

"Based on how deeply this has affected her, the aftermath of the SAZ massacre was _less_ scarring."

"I... I see…"

"Indeed, so tread lightly around her, she's barely stable as is, and her mental health is seemingly entirely reliant on X to remain so."

"I hardly consider that healthy." Nemo pointed out. "There's going to be trouble if she and X suffer any serious bump in their relationship."

Lelouch and Kallen glared at her, utterly unamused.

"What?"

"Given our crap luck, you've just screwed everything up Nemo." Kallen snorted.

Red eyes inspected Lelouch as Nemo raised an eyebrow. "Oh please. _You_ actually believe in those jinxes?"

"Considering that almost every time I'm seemingly on the cusp of victory Suzaku suddenly rears his head, yes, I'm starting to believe in that superstition. Or that at the very least that Murphy is an insufferable prick." Lelouch retorted humorlessly.

Nemo threw up her hands in exasperation and brushed past them as she left in a huff.

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Castle Weisswolf, Franco-German Border, EU.**

Captain Akito Hyuuga frowned as he watched his damaged Alexander Liberte undergo repairs, the Knightmare having taken a nasty glancing hit from a Brighton's railgun during the last skirmish, shattering the machine's Schrotter Steel armor, critically damaging the propulsion wings, and blowing off one of the arms.

Had Ashley Ashra not intervened he'd probably be dead now. The Brightons with their railguns and the Vincent Gatlings with their arm mounted 30mm rotary cannons had been variables they weren't expecting.

Technology marches on indeed.

"How much longer?" Akito asked one of the technicians.

The man hissed as he looked over the machine. "We can replace the arm easy enough, but the high-speed propulsion wings and Schrotter Steel ablative armor will take some time to do unless we get a resource injection for the printer." He explained.

Akito's frown deepened. "I see, just fix whatever's the highest priority to get the machine combat ready again." He instructed as he turned and left.

Outside the hangar, he found Leila waiting for him, the young man gently walking up to her and caressing his lover's face.

"You worried me today." She said sternly before wrapping her arms around 'Hannibal's Ghost' once they were alone and out of sight.

"My apologies Colonel." He replied softly.

"Don't do that again Akito… And stop being so formal while we're alone..."

He smiled at her. "Understood Leila, but I don't think the Britannians will be so accommodating to your first request."

She nodded gently at him before releasing him from her hold before looking away thoughtfully. "I've always wondered, what's your impression of Zero?"

Akito frowned, he'd never really thought much of him, yet he was a competent leader, even if his strategies were so unorthodox that they couldn't possibly have been the result of military training. "He's capable, but the way he fights, it's not suited for open warfare."

Leila nodded. "I agree, his style is too unorthodox for set-piece engagements. Too reliant on him forcing the battlefield to suit his desires rather than adjusting to developing situations." She replied as she began to walk towards the command center, Akito following along. "Which may cost him in the short term while he tries to reconcile the differences."

"It already has, Tokyo was proof enough of that." Akito muttered bitterly.

Leila glanced back at him, well aware that if the Japanese had reclaimed their homeland, then the people of the EU would be less inclined to treat them even worse than the _Britannians_ did at times.

"_And to think our propaganda claims we are _better_ than Britannia…"_ She mused frustratedly as they strode into an elevator.

Again there was the nagging thought of joining up with the Black Knights, or rather the UFN.

At the rate the EU was losing land, the government would probably accept a peace offer from the Britannians that respected the current borders at the drop of a hat if Prince Maximillian's troops made a major breakthrough anywhere along the line.

What happened to W-0 then was up in the air.

Leila would _not_ allow them to be tossed aside like trash by the EU yet again.

And so she made up her mind.

If the government threw them away, they'd seek shelter under the aegis of the UFN military, whom certainly had no shortage of demand for skilled personnel of all types.

"Akito." She said calmly.

"Hmm?"

"I've made my decision, we're going to send out further feelers to see if we can link up with Zero should worse come to worst."

Akito nodded. "So, what do you think we can get away with taking with us if we do go?"

She hummed softly. "Whatever we can abscond with I guess." She admitted after a moment. "Preferably we'll end up taking the Alexanders, it'd be too much of a hassle to retrain everyone on those Black Knights models, and I am not overly fond of miss Chalwa's preferred cockpit designs either."

Akito chuckled. "I don't think anyone really is." He replied as the elevator stopped.

"Well, back to business it is." She sighed as the doors slid open.

And then both stepped out and into the hallway.

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

A disguised C2 strode through the streets of the Tokyo, noting the attitude was far more somber than before the Black Rebellion. Making her way towards Ashford in the dying light of the afternoon.

Surprisingly she found that the contact Diethard had put in place for her was Sayoko of all people, though given her ninja training and the fact she was a master of disguise it made sense.

She remembered the ex-Maid's words well.

"_Go to Ashford, there's something you need to see there."_

As plain and simple as it got, but what else could she do? Her primary objective was to monitor the for the announcement of the establishment of the new SAZ, with her secondaries being to look for answers regarding Rivalz and finding out if there were any surviving cells of the Black Knights who'd been jailed or left behind in Area 11.

Still, Sayoko had seemed oddly drained when she'd told C2 to go to Ashford, as if she knew C2 wouldn't like what she found.

She stopped just short of Ashford, the school's main campus looked _similar_ to how she remembered it.

But the security measures were certainly new. _Armed_ guards, a sizable number of cameras, a group of older model ride armors, Pararoid R-5 mechaniloids flitting about to perform aerial surveillance, and even a couple demilitarized Glasgows patrolled the perimeter walls, which were reinforced and boasted razor wire well-disguised as vines along the top, the main gate too had been reinforced and moved a bit back from the street to make way for a large public memorial.

The campus looked more like a _military base_ than a privatized boarding school, especially given the fact most of the male students she saw were wearing black field caps now with the gold trimming on their uniforms exchanged for grey. Meanwhile the female students had exchanged their brightly colored pinks and yellows, depending on whether they were primary, middle, or secondary schooling level, for more subdued greys and blacks to provide a contrast with the male students.

Clearly the Uprising's death toll had deeply affected the entire culture at Ashford Academy, which had avoided any deaths during the Black Rebellion largely due to Lelouch's orders.

A shiver ran down her spine, Milly would've sooner died than accept any of this for the school she loved.

Not exactly a good omen.

C2 strode up to the granite slabs that stood like silent sentinels, mixing in with the throngs of humans and Reploids quietly looking for the names of friends and loved ones from the students, staff, and faculty at both the grade schools and the neighboring university.

On a hunch, as the names were organized alphabetically by given name, she searched for Lelouch.

And failed to find him. _"Surprising... Last night Lelouch claimed to have vaguely remembered being at Ashford during the Uprising, so if he wasn't listed as dead…"_

Shirley's name wasn't there, neither was Kallen or Sophie Wood, C2 remembering her even though the latter girl's stint on the council had been much shorter than Shirley's unless Milly had kept her on into the next school year.

Nunnally's was missing, not a big surprise there, as was Nina's and her own.

Suzaku was obviously not marked either.

The one name she _did_ see made her lubricant lines run cold, the Reploid almost dropping her phone in shock as she fell to her hands and knees with an audible clank as she tried to process _how_ and _why _while breaking down into choked sobs as her verdant nanofilament hair flowed down over her shoulders.

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Suzaku frowned as Rivalz strode up to his desk, having been working on forms to approve repairs and an overhaul for the Lancelot following the battle the previous day which left most of its systems fried and Lloyd _screaming_ at the fact the machine had almost been lost to the depths of the Pacific. Suzaku had no doubt he would be reinforcing the EMP hardening and trying to work in more redundancies to prevent something like that from occurring again.

"Hey, Suzaku, I want to talk to you about something." The blue haired young man admitted tiredly. Their informality was one of a few perks that Rivalz enjoyed by virtue of their prior friendship, naturally he was more formal with other authority figures.

Some viewed his promotion to Suzaku's entourage as borderline if not outright cronyism due to Rivalz's relative inexperience, something Suzaku found ironic given the propensity of many nobles to do the same and easily get away with it, even if he'd pushed himself through training to the point of nearly burning himself out on top of the abbreviated courses given to new recruits to try and rebuild various divisions of the Royal Panzer Infantry after the losses suffered during the Black Rebellion and the Maverick Uprising.

Still, he wasn't quite as good as Schnee or Ledo just yet, even if Suzaku had picked him up early enough for Rivalz to get _real_ training from skilled pilots, and certainly wouldn't stand even half a chance against Kallen or Todoh one on one. That custom pink Command Akatsuki destroying his lance after he tried the rookie move of trying to engage a wave surger equipped unit in _melee combat_ after having panicked slightly was telling that he still had a long way to go.

Though to be fair to Rivalz, he was improving, even if some of his actions were still amateurish and hasty despite being a cut above the typical KMF pilot.

Not unlike how he himself had used to be admittedly, given his only Knightmare experience prior to the Lancelot had been with MR-2 worker frames under strict observation from armed Glasgows operated by Britannian MPs. Though he doubted Rivalz could take a dozen Sutherlands and a Glasgow with only Slash Harkens and his Lionel's Blaze Luminous and fists.

He shook his head after noticing the confused look on Rivalz's face, he'd spaced out again hadn't he?

"Sorry about that, I was lost in thought. Is something wrong? I was just about to go spar with Gino at his request once I finished up this paperwork, but if it's that important I can tell him I'll be delayed a bit." Suzaku asked, breaking the awkward silence that had resulted.

"Yeah..." Rivalz sighed before speaking up again. "It's just... You know that other Guren unit, the Black One."

"Yeah, what about it Rivalz…?" Suzaku asked, raising an eyebrow warily.

"Shirley's... The pilot..." Rivalz admitted.

Suzaku sighed and sank heavily into his seat. "Of course she would be..." He exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. _"Lelouch... I know you, this has to be entirely the result of Shirley's own initiative... She's blinded by her affections and you're too much of a coward to get her to stop... Typical."_ He thought as he glanced back up at Rivalz. "Has Sophie asked about her?"

"No, she's kinda more or less accepted what happened two years ago, but... She's mentioned thinking about trying out for the military as well after what..."

Rivalz clammed up before elaborating.

"Rivalz… _What happened_, I haven't had the time to inspect the memorial myself and you haven't told me _anything_ about what occurred last year."

"It's really something you need to make time to see for yourself Suzaku…" Rivalz replied cryptically, his mood clearly souring.

"I see, I'll make plans to head over to Ashford then. You're dismissed if there's nothing else for us to talk about." Suzaku told him, Rivalz nodding and striding out of the room.

Suzaku frowned, Rivalz not being open about this seriously concerned him, as it meant it was a _very_ painful topic.

Just like **Euphie** was for himself...

His eyes widened in horrified realization. _"Lelouch is right, I_ am_ an idiot sometimes..."_ Suzaku thought begrudgingly as the pieces finally clicked together.

He knew why Rivalz was fighting, why he pushed himself so hard.

And he knew why he blamed the Black Knights for it...

The worst part was he wasn't even sure if Lelouch _could_ be blamed for it given how the Mavericks operated.

Hell, he might've actually made things _better_ because Clovis and his men would've probably gotten utterly stomped by Storm Eagle and caused far more casualties than had actually been incurred.

* * *

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Lelouch sighed as he filled out a budget allocation form.

"Don't be like that Lulu…" Shirley chided as she brought over another stack. "It's necessary work."

"If I'd wanted to do nothing but paperwork between fits of activity, I'd've stayed on the student council rather than become a revolutionary." He replied with mild annoyance.

Shirley opened her mouth to reply when Lelouch's cellphone rang, Lelouch picking it up after checking the caller ID. "C2, what's…" He began before trailing off, his jaw going slack and his eyes widening in an almost catatonic manner. "What…? You're certain…?" He rasped as Shirley stiffened, wondering what was wrong.

"Lulu…?" She squeaked softly.

"Yes… I'll tell them..." He replied weakly as he slumped back into his chair. "Just… Head back to your assigned safehouse, or something… That's all the instructions I'll give you for now…" He told C2 as he hung up, hand shaking as he put the phone down and covered his eyes with a hand as he fought back tears.

The ginger shivered nervously. "Lulu…? What's wrong…? You're scaring me."

"Shirley… Milly's _dead_… C2 just found her name on the memorial for those at Ashford who died in the Uprising…" Lelouch managed to choke out.

The stack of papers Shirley was holding slipped from her trembling hands and fluttered across the floor.

* * *

**AN: And thus Rivalz's reason for enlisting becomes clear.**

**Milly died to Mavericks during the Uprising, undoubtedly while trying to get students and faculty at Ashford to safety, and he blames the Black Knights for allowing that to happen. For Rivalz, this is his drive to become as good as Suzaku, so that nobody else will lose someone close to them under his watch.**

**Some people will go to incredible lengths to avenge a loved one.**

**Just look at Suzaku during the canon battle of Tokyo, forgoing his refusal to kill in order to bring Zero to justice for Euphemia's death and brainwashing her into starting the SAZ massacre, even if Lelouch only did it by _accident_.**

**Though it's not like V.V. told Suzaku _that_ part, the little bastard. Suzaku went an entire year thinking Lelouch had done that on purpose.**

**And Lelouch didn't even bother to correct him because he knew Suzaku would never be able to believe it otherwise it would totally break him.**

**Also yes, it was a spur of the moment change, originally Rivalz was supposed to think that _Lelouch_ had been killed, but that just didn't have the same impact as someone actually dying, especially when he discovers Lelouch is quite alive and well.**

**I'm gonna be honest, I didn't have any plans for Milly, like at all (She's really not all that important in the Grand Scheme of Code Geass, and unlike Rivalz or Shirley she's not exactly the type to be willing to fight or kill if necessary either), and it ties into some of the darker themes with the now-former student council. You have Rivalz, Suzaku, and Nina on one side, and Lelouch, Shirley, and Kallen on the other. None of them under previous circumstances are actually willing to fight and kill the other side, but times change, people change, and Shirley is honestly the last to be losing her innocence. At least until I figure out whether or not to do something with Sophie owing to her appearance on the Council via the butterfly effect in X1/R1.**

**That said, Milly wasn't unimportant. She was the heart and soul of the student council, she _understood_ how deeply human nature runs, which is why she committed to the festivals to try and keep things cheerful.**

**So without her or the Ashford scenes there's admittedly a_ lot_ of anger festering under everyone, waiting to be let loose. Rivalz's hatred of the Black Knights in general and Reploids in particular for their roles in the death of the woman he loved, Suzaku and Nina for what Lelouch did to Euphie, Kallen's myriad of issues owing to her problematic childhood and her half-blood status, Shirley's problems with being viewed as a burden (reflecting some opinions that she was useless in canon despite being insanely important to Lelouch's character development by giving him cause to go after the Geass order and thus set up his own fall) and trying to reconcile what her father was involved with, and of course Lelouch's plethora of issues need no introduction.**

**Toss in C2 and her underlying trauma then lock the seven of them in a room and _someone_ will be killed within minutes without an outside factor to defuse them. The slowest burning fires are often the most dangerous left unwatched, because if you look away for too long they could easily become a raging inferno.**

**Also yeah, effective confirmation that the 20XX I used is the one from the Archie comics by having Wily's mental tirade bring up the first World's collide crossover event with the old Sonic comic.**

**Anyways, the X-02As here are just single seat versions of the X-02S from Ace Combat 7, albiet with the same upgrades the Wyvern gets for being Britannian made, with Mihaly's X-02B being the two-seater.**

**Phoenix's custom paint scheme for his Su-15K is basically the Su-33's paint scheme for him from AC6.**

**This will also be the last time we'll check in with Serges/Wily for a while.**

**Oh right, and the story in general because I'll be working up a backlog of chapters for a couple weeks like I mentioned previously.**

.

**Before we go on hiatus, just wanna say I'm legit surprised there aren't any Purge/CG crossovers.**

**Because the purge as a concept seems like a very Britannian thing to do with its whole survival of the fittest scenario, and could be used in the context of the story to further the cause of the Black Knights since nobles and Royals would likely be safe behind heavy and very loyal security while the commoners, honoraries, and numbers fend for themselves.**

**Naturally this could end up being very good with a proper writer, with random groups roaming the Tokyo Settlement looking for victims suddenly getting ganked out of nowhere by Burais and heavily armed Black Knights, imposing the psychological effect that Knightmares would have on people not experienced with fighting them and giving the Black Knights some very good publicity.**

**Double or nothing with the Guren going around immolating people so Kallen can let off steam.**

**God knows there's also a way to work the Mao arc into there, with him using the purge as a cover to try and go after C.C., forcing her to kill him to save Lelouch's life or something.**

**Can't say I'm a big fan of horror so this is a definite off limits to me for even considering writing, which is why I'm throwing the idea out there.**


	8. Turn 8: The Portents of Fate

**AN: So we return to the bombshell left by the previous chapter, in which Milly is rather dead.**

**Also reality ensues. Expect tonal mood swings as well.**

**And yeah, I know this is late. More or less what was supposed to be a month-long hiatus turned into a summer-long sabbatical as other ideas crept up on me and I got distracted.**

**So I won't be replying to reviews specifically from last chapter in the interest of time, but I'll reply to them in future installments.**

**EDIT: Updated due to incomplete portion of one scene, how I missed that I'll never know.**

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

"Milly's dead…? How…" Shirley whispered as her legs quaked weakly.

"I don't know…" Lelouch replied as he sat in his chair, looking absolutely _defeated_.

Neither could believe that _Milly_ of all of them would be the first of the student council to leave this mortal coil. Though it explained Rivalz enlisting in the Britannian army. The two had been _far_ closer than most people assumed at first glance.

Lelouch honestly expected it to be himself or Suzaku who bit the bullet, maybe even Kallen.

Not Milly.

"Shirley… Take a seat before you collapse… I'll have someone send Kallen up when she has the time…" He said in resignation as he looked over at the ginger, knowing the redhead's reaction would be little better.

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Macadam's Oilhouse, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

C2 downed her latest drink as she sat at the counter, one of her arms twitching almost uncontrollably.

"Listen, you need to tone it down lass, your systems are already glitching out enou-" The bartender began, trying to talk her out of further drinking.

The Reploid shuddered violently. "I just found out a close friend of mine is _dead_, I just want to wallow in my own sorrow for one night, _okay_?" She snapped a little more harshly than she intended, before turning away and looking a bit ashamed at the somewhat hurt reaction from the bartender. "Listen, I'm sorry, it's just been a rough week…" C2 sighed.

The upcoming enactment of the Reploid Registration Act she'd found out about following her arrival in Area 11 was not helping her nerves either. Following the Uprising, the Maverick Hunters had much of their independence stripped away due to the leaders of the rebellion being made up of renegade Hunters, with each nation stepping up oversight dramatically, including instituting new laws such as this that made it far more difficult for Reploids to move around.

"_No wonder the number of new Reploid recruits jumped dramatically, they're afraid and hurt, but they don't know any other way to push back that won't get them labeled Mavericks for political reasons."_ She thought dryly as she took another sip.

She wondered what they would've done had Lelouch not provided a legitimate outlet for them.

Some of the closer patrons muttered idly among themselves, typical bar conversations that she tuned out.

C2's ear fins twitched as she heard a car approach.

Bullets suddenly tore through the front of the establishment, shattering the windows, most of the civilian Reploids diving for cover as a pair of off duty Reploid police officers crouched down and began to make calls for backup.

C2 peeked her head up after hearing the vehicle speed off.

"That happen often…?" She asked wearily.

"Only after the uprising, a lot of humans on both sides of the ghetto walls are pretty pissed off at us as a species…" One of the other patrons grumbled as some of the staff began to board up the holes in the windows, the brick façade of the building having stopped the rounds that impacted those sections. The fact that minimal damage appeared to have occurred indicated ball or hollowpoint rather than AP ammo. "They used to have some humans working here before Macadam had to let them go for their own safety after the retaliations started."

C2 sighed in exasperation. "Wonderful… I'm guessing the cops won't do anything." She groaned.

"Oh they'll do something, even with the divide between humans and Reploids, those two officers over there will basically ensure the jokers who did this get run down lest it embolden other criminals." One of the other Reploids, a female, grumbled cynically as she pointed out the off-duty cops. "Otherwise the bastards wouldn't give a damn, just like they didn't for all those Elevens who got lynched after Zero's little takeover attempt went down in flames. Angry mobs of Brits killed _children_ for no other reason than they were Elevens. All because Zero couldn't control his _own_ angry mobs and a lot of Elevens decided he wouldn't notice if a bunch of Britannian civilians died in the chaos." They said bitterly.

C2 glanced warily at the other Reploid, noting that clear lines were already forming between those Reploids built in Britannia, and human Britannians. Whereas before the Uprising both equally identified as Britannians.

Another thing to report to Lelouch on. The world was turning into a powder keg yet again and she didn't like the way the fuses were burning.

Sighing again, C2 turned and put down some bills on the counter before walking out the door, nobody was in much of a mood to talk anymore anyways, and her wallowing had already been rudely interrupted by the drive-by.

* * *

**June 16, 2019 ATB.**

**Residential Block 23, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

The walk back to her apartment was quiet at least, nobody was stupid enough to jump a Reploid on the street yet, at least not in decent areas, though she knew that some of the punks hanging out on street corners would've certainly loved to give it a try.

Even without her armor she could still easily take a half dozen humans.

Undoing her scarf, one of the few things that she'd decided to bring with her, C2 slipped off her coat with some annoyance, reattaching her left forearm once the associated sleeve had been removed before moving onto the next.

"_Can't wait until they streamline Reploids enough that this isn't necessary anymore."_ She thought dryly as she moved to her pants next, putting her lower legs back on once stripped down to her usual body glove with light torso plating covering her chest, both of which were black and silver like her current suit of armor.

Maybe they could even make armor look like clothing, Flex-Ceratanium was durable and with enough materials development it could be possible to make it armor grade.

She shrugged; such a development was _decades_ away at best though.

Lying back on her bed, C2 looked up at the ceiling, bored out of her mind and unable to bring herself to turn on the TV.

Just as she was about to drift off into sleep mode, she heard a faint click from the door and froze, eyes wide.

"_I left the door locked when I came back, didn't I?"_ She thought initially before slowly moving her hand towards a pistol she'd stored at the side of the bed.

There was a flash and then an energy blade at her throat, another Reploid looming over her, C2 noting the pink armor, black body suit, and unusually voluptuous design of the other female.

"What're you doing in my apartment!?" She snarled.

"_Your _apartment!? This is the one_ I_ was assigned as a safehouse!" C2 snarled back before kicking the other Reploid off, taking advantage of her astonishment to call upon her armor and ready her right arm's buster mode, an ominous hum filling the room as she charged the weapon up.

The Reploid _immediately_ stowed her weapon behind her as she got a good look at the now armored C2. "Wait, wait, wait! _You're_ the Reploid I'm supposed to be working with!?" She said rapidly, trying to keep her voice down.

"Working with!? What the hell are you talking about!?" C2 snapped at her, Marino sighing in exasperation.

"You mean you weren't briefed?"

"NO!" C2 yelled at her. "This is just the first I'm hearing of it! Who the hell was responsible for relaying this!?"

"Some guy named Tamaki according to Sayoko." The other Reploid said dismissively.

C2's left eye twitched violently as she lowered her arm cannon, venting the built up energy in her buster. "Of fucking _course_…"

"So, name's Marino, you must be C2 then." Marino said as she slipped off the bed and walked over to the couch, sitting down and turning on the TV. "Guess we'll be working together for a bit. Got some nanite beers in the fridge if you're still in the mood for liquor."

C2, waited for her buster's charge to dissipate before she dispelled her armor and walked over. "Not even gonna ask how you know I had a buzz but might as well work it back up again, been having a shitty day so far." She sighed as she opened the fridge, pulling out two beers and tossing one to the other Reploid, whom caught it and cracked it open in a single motion.

"Since your day is shit anyways might as well ask. I've been wondering, how good is X in bed?" Marino asked slyly just as C2 took a sip.

She spat her drink all over the floor in surprise.

* * *

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Kallen strode into Zero's office and closed the door behind her. "Sorry I'm late, training ops took longer than expected. You wanted to see me?" She asked nervously, noting that Shirley was also present.

And that both she and Lelouch looked rather haggard. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Kallen… C2 reported that she found Milly's name marked on a memorial outside Ashford." Lelouch said bluntly, having had time to come to terms with reality. "She was apparently killed in the uprising, hence why Rivalz is now fighting us…" He explained.

Kallen stood there, utterly dumbfounded before taking an unamused expression. "This is a joke, right? Because if it is, it's not funny Lelouch."

"C2 wouldn't joke about this." He uttered sharply; a bit harsher than he'd intended.

"Bull, Milly can't be dead…" Kallen denied, trying desperately to cling to some vain hope.

"She's _dead_ Kallen! Denying it won't change anything!" Lelouch yelled, his already bad mood further soured by Kallen's refusal to accept what had happened and making his temper a razor thin wire.

"Lulu stop!" Shirley shouted at him as she jumped to her feet. "You're not helping!"

"And what the hell _am_ I supposed to do Shirley!? Entertain the _delusions_ of someone who can't accept reality!? There's a difference between refusing to accept the state of the world and working to change it and refusing to accept that someone is dead! No amount of military force, political maneuvering, Geass or _**anything**_ can bring Milly back!" He snarled as he swept his papers off the desk in a fit of rage as Kallen broke down and sobbed, Lelouch stopping his tantrum and looking away guiltily as Nemo clapped sarcastically from the corner.

"Well done, _this_ is the leader of the Black Knights; throwing a hypocritical tantrum like an angered _child_." She mocked as she continued her slow clapping.

Lelouch snorted derisively as he leered at her. "When did you get here?"

"I've been here for some time; you and Shirley were too out of it to notice me entering the room though, so I decided not to bother you." The Immortal admitted with a shrug. "I've been working on my 'material' by the way, is this closer to my typical form?" She snarked.

Lelouch rolled his eyes and walked over to Kallen, before gently dragging her into a hug. "Kallen…" He whispered softly.

"L… Lelouch… Why, why did it have to be her?" She sobbed softly as she nestled her head onto his shoulder, Shirley watching with mild jealousy, even as she understood that Kallen _needed_ this to comfort her.

"Because the world is cruel." He replied.

"I hate that…"

"So do I… So do I…" He assured her. "No longer will I accept losing people I care about… This twisted world needs to be reset…"

* * *

"To Zero."

* * *

Down in the officer's mess, Pixy recounted the story that earned him his moniker to a group of fresh junior officers, Cipher sitting nearby with a field cap down over his eyes and his face obscured by a Bandanna.

Nobody really questioned the Merc's reasons for keeping his identity hidden, most figuring it blended into the meaning behind the word that was his callsign.

"So here I was, down to my last couple missiles, and then the guy's wingman suddenly dives back into the fight and clips my damn bird, completely tears the wing off. I swear, those Zilkhstani pilots were goddamn crazy or stupid because he ended up impacting his own lead and killed them both, leaving me alone to nurse my wounded crate back to the airstrip and I'm just sitting there and praying my Me 434 will hold together long enough to get home."

"You're _still_ telling that story solo-wing?" One of the Scarface pilots sneered from their squadron's table.

"Just telling the new recruits that basically the only way to ensure they'll crash, is to resign themselves to crashing." The German man shot back.

"Then perhaps you should tell it in a less self-glorifying way Captain Foulke." Todoh admonished as he strode over to a table with the Swords in tow, Urabe and Chiba chatting idly about their new Knightmares.

"He admitted he was terrified out of his mind, not really 'self-glorifying'." One of the other pilots pointed out.

Todoh opened his mouth to respond and found nothing wrong. "My apologies. It's just that every time _someone _tries to expound their exploits; they excessively overly embellish the stories. Which has apparently happened enough to result in that becoming nearly reflex." Todoh said as he walked away, eyeing Tamaki at the word 'someone'.

"Hey!" Tamaki protested feebly from the food line, much to the amusement of the entire mess hall.

Pixy shrugged dismissively as Cipher sighed.

Ohgi and Tamaki joined Todoh at his table as Pixy began to continue his story, the three tuning it out for the moment. "So, Colonel, what're our possible plans of action?" Ohgi inquired.

"So far we're waiting on further intelligence data from Area 11, however there are reports that some members of the Black Knights are being held at the Prince Clovis memorial detention center that was completed early last year."

Ohgi frowned contemplatively as he considered that.

"So what, are we going to have to launch a rescue mission?!" Tamaki shouted bluntly after swallowing some of his food, earning several glares from around the room. "Because the last time we showed up in force in Tokyo we got our asses handed to us!"

"And yet Zero accomplished _my_ rescue with minimal effort." Todoh countered, shutting Tamaki up for the moment.

"Yeah, but we also had less to deal with, and it was solely aimed at getting _you_ and only you." Ohgi pointed out.

Todoh frowned. "A fair point..." He conceded.

"So Colonel, in your opinion what're the odds we could pull the operation off _and_ escape Area 11?" Ohgi asked.

"Exceedingly poor, even Zero would have great difficulty with that depending on the number of prisoners involved." Todoh admitted after a short pause, Ohgi nodding and beginning to contemplate what other options they had.

He didn't see any. "I'll speak to Zero about this at some point, hopefully he can give us some ideas for when we have more intelligence to act on." He suggested, the others nodding in agreement.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**The Aquarium, Moscow, USSR.**

Polkovnik Fridrik Vsevolodovich of the GRU's Third Directorate frowned as he looked over the latest reports. "You're certain that these SIGINT reports are accurate?"

The lieutenant who'd brought him this intel nodded. "Yes, according to these the Chinese are sending a delegation to Area 11 to negotiate the remainder of their agreement with the Second Prince, who will arrive later on to formalize it, this coincides with the movement of additional Britannian air force units from New Arrows to bases in Alaska for the staging phase of their invasion plans, it appears to be their Long Range Strategic Strike Group."

"So, the Britannians wish to further stab us in the back by having the Chinese attack from the south with the promise that they'll get their lands back. Hmph, at least they can realpolitik well enough. A one-time friend can quickly become an enemy when interests diverge." Fridrik mused, running a hand through his graying hair. "I shall see that this copy reaches the Council of Ministers once we've confirmed the validity and crosschecked it with the First Main Directorate of the KGB at Lubyanka. Make sure others remain in the off-chance the OSI or another covert group intervenes."

"Sir." The junior officer replied as they snapped to attention and strode out of the office.

Fridrik frowned as he glanced back at the report. "If the Chinese do attack Mongolia and Manchuria… Then we'll be forced to either abandon the east or risk letting our forces there be encircled en-masse." He didn't like this, the feeling that they'd gotten conned by the Second Prince was becoming prevalent among the upper echelons of the Soviet Government, further reinforcing the old opinions among them that Russia, and therefore the Union was beset on all sides by enemies.

The alternative was that the Emperor himself had ordered Britannia turn on the Union. For what reason he didn't know, nor did he care.

His duty was to defend his motherland from _all_ threats, a duty he would perform until his dying breath.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Britannian Camelot Special Development Facility, Tokyo Settlement Area 11.**

Suzaku made his way down a hallway, led by a female Reploid by the name of Inferno Kitsune.

The Knight of Seven had been genuinely surprised by her name and design, as she very much resembled a blond haired, four tailed kitsune from Japanese legend.

If Kitsunes wore flame-resistant armor styled after a combination of firefighting gear and samurai armor.

Or their tails ended with flame projectors.

Still, it was unusual for a _Britannian _Reploid to utilize an Area's original culture so overtly for any purpose.

The Reploid glanced back at him from behind her wedge-shaped visor. "You have been unusually quiet Sir Kururugi." She noted.

"I've just been thinking... It's not important really." Suzaku said after a moment.

No need for her to learn about Lelouch, about how he was probably Zero once again.

There's no way anyone else could pull off that sort of flair to themselves without his aid either.

She nodded at him as they walked along.

"Still, what exactly occurs at this facility?" Suzaku inquired as they approached a pair of heavy access doors.

"Classified. You lack the appropriate clearance classifications for much of this facility's data. My apologies Sir Kururugi, but there are things even Rounds aren't meant to have access to." The female Reploid replied curtly, Suzaku's scowl deepening.

"Ah, but there is _one_ project we can show you, at least partially." Inferno Kitsune added after a moment. "Requisite clearance and all."

"Well what is it?"

"To spare the details, it's supposed to be a new peacekeeping weapon, intended to stomp out low level threats at minimal long-term cost to our government and military." Inferno Kitsune stated with a smile. "It was designed by Doctor Serges based on data taken from one of those old Wily bases and built using next-gen materials _I_ developed to bring the design to full potential."

"What's this machine called?" Suzaku asked as they stopped at the doors, which slowly began to grind open after the Reploid provided the access code.

"Classified." she stated yet again, though Suzaku couldn't reply due to him currently gaping in awe at what laid inside.

Inferno Kitsune's resulting grin would've been disconcerting to Suzaku.

Had he been looking at her.

"Impressive, isn't he?" She asked him.

Suzaku couldn't even reply as he stared at the partially built titan standing inside the bay as human and Reploid workers toiled away on it.

There was a twinge of _fear_ as he stared at the behemoth of a machine, totally at a loss for words.

He finally spoke up. "Yes… Yes he is…" The Knight of Seven uttered with a dry throat.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Countryside near Prince Clovis Memorial Detention Facility.**

C2 swept her optics over the prison walls with the Search Soul, Marino watching her back.

"So, you into chicks?" Marino asked after a while.

"Again, with this line? Listen, you're pretty hot and all but I'm not cheating on my bondmate." C2 snipped at her.

Marino simply smirked. "Good, that just means I can steal two hearts for the price of one."

C2 rolled her eyes. "You realize how corny that sounds right?"

"I do, don't care. Besides, I'm not looking for anything serious, casual fragging is fine by me." The other Reploid admitted as C2 spotted a VTOL take off from a previously hidden hangar in one of the buildings, the Reploid committing that to memory. "So how do I convince you two?"

"How the hell should I know? We literally just winged it the first time, and in hindsight fragging near Chill Penguin's blasted corpse should've been a massive turn off…" She muttered.

"Wow, _that_ was the first time? Wouldn't you have wanted it to be a little… Y'know, special?" Marino asked as she glanced over at C2 again, the other Reploid flushing and looking away in embarrassment and more than a bit of shame.

"I got overeager okay? I hadn't exactly been having the best of times leading up to that… So I just wanted a sense of normalcy."

"Sex to try and rectify a mental problem isn't healthy." Marino pointed out.

"I _know_ that!" C2 snapped at her. "It's just… I have no idea what I'm doing half the time just to stay _sane_. And so I've basically latched on to X as a means to assure myself I'm not psychotic or something." She sighed as she swept her gaze across the prison again, confirming and noting which hatches were maintenance exits and which were used primarily by guards.

"I'm not even gonna keep saying it at this point."

"Good, It's already annoying." C2 snorted at her.

A wry smile graced Marino's features as she realized that she could screw with C2 now. "X is pretty handsome though, maybe I'll just ask him myself. What I want to do is probably be a lot more meaningful than doing it near a Maverick's Corpse."

That was the final straw for C2, whom, already in a horrendous mood, spun about and slugged her in the face.

The resulting clang was picked up from the prison, alarms beginning to blare as both Reploids looked at eachother and then bolted into the hills.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Alicia Lohmeyer strode into Nunnally's office, where one of her R2 unit bodyguards was aiding her with some paperwork by reading off what it said, the girl at least having the benefit of a year of instruction regarding legalese to aid her.

"Viceroy." She said, announcing her presence and causing Nunnally's head to tilt up in her direction. "There was an incident at Prince Clovis Memorial detention center, two Reploids were detected in the vicinity, likely scouting the prison."

"Inform General Darlton that he is to do as he sees fit with the prison's security please, he's far more adept at military matters than I." Nunnally replied sternly.

"Your highness, it's unbeco-"

"I will _not_ micromanage my subordinates, whatever issues you may have with the general's political leanings and opinions regarding numbers, do bear in mind that he answers foremost to High General Cornelia and has both mine and her blessings." Nunnally warned sharply.

She wasn't as naïve as she used to be, and she hardly trusted Lohmeyer anyways, the woman was too self-serving for Nunnally's tastes.

Being a card-carrying purist didn't endear her to the girl either.

"Very well then, but this incident has some high-ranking members of the Police demanding we _immediately _institute the new curfews for civilian Reploids outside the exempted jobs described in the new regulations effective immediately."

Nunnally looked down at her desk, contemplating. "Have the details of the regulations been released to the public yet?" She inquired.

"No, but it's har-"

"Then until those releases are in place, and all of the Area's police precincts are also informed, we cannot enact the new regulations and policies without impacting the effectiveness of Area 11's economy, which is _still_ recovering from the damage inflicted by the Black Rebellion I might add, not to mention that damage was further compounded by the Maverick Uprising. It will be at least a few weeks before the issues get sorted out and most everyone is informed." The girl pointed out.

Lohmeyer sneered briefly before her face evened out. "If that is your wish, we will begin taking the appropriate measures to ensure the public and our law enforcement officers are properly informed."

"Is there anything _else _I should be informed about, Advisor Lohmeyer?" Nunnally asked testily.

Already Lohmeyer was testing her patience, she wasn't an invalid despite her disability, and in hindsight it actually _angered _her somewhat that Lelouch treated her like she needed to be coddled at all times.

She'd chalked _that_ up to puberty and hormones as she'd _intentionally_ elicited that type of reaction from her brother to give him a reason to live.

"No, your highness, there is not."

"Then you are dismissed." Nunnally informed the woman curtly.

The spectacled woman frowned but turned and left without another word.

"Are you alright, your highness?" The R2 inquired, monoeye tracking over to the girl.

"Yes, I do not understand why Lohmeyer is even assigned to me, there's several Viceroys of similar political leanings to her who would gladly make use of her services." She sighed.

"_Is this what Lelouch had to deal with, did he have to grow up this quickly?"_ She wondered as the Reploid pondered her statement.

"It seems likely based on current data that she was assigned as a backstop, intending to curb what are viewed as your more 'liberal' tendencies." The Reploid replied finally.

"And to think I would be considered a _conservative _in the EU or a moderate in Australia, is our political system that backwards?" Nunnally whispered softly.

The Reploid cocked its head at her.

She shook her head. "Nevermind, what other things are on today's agenda?"

"There's a meeting with a Commander Sigma of the 17th unit later today regarding the operations of the Maverick Hunters in country, part of the new oversight regulations instituted after the Uprising." The Reploid said after checking the itinerary.

"Ah, the 17th unit… X is part of that unit, isn't he? I wonder how he's been doing?" Nunnally mused as she spun her wheelchair and rolled towards the window, feeling the glow of the sun on her face through the triple-layered bulletproof glass panes.

"Oh, by the way, have we narrowed down a date for the announcement of the restoration of the SAZ?" She asked.

"We're still working on it, but we'll have it done soon."

Nunnally gently nodded before continuing to 'look' out the window, deep in thought.

She'd learned recently that she didn't have apoxia of lid opening, and that her eyes despite all indications otherwise were indeed functional, but that a mental block of some sort existed that they chalked up to the trauma of witnessing her mother get riddled with bullets.

Which confused her, she'd come to terms with her mother's death a long time ago, why would she be unable to see still?

The only explanation was that something else was afoot.

Nunnally pursed her lips in concern.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Shinjuku Ghetto, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

"SEIZA!" Sayoko bellowed as C2 and Marino knelt before her inside a ruined and abandoned storage room for some corner market, their knee joints forcibly locked.

"I don't know what you think this is accomplishing, we can't feel physical discomfort like humans can." Marino noted as she glanced over at C2.

"Then I'll have you kneel like that until your joints rust shut. Because you two coming to blows blew a sensitive covert operation." The ninja replied darkly, C2 hissing at the other Reploid to try and get her to shut up. "Now stay here, I have business with Marty at the moment regarding a second wave of Diethard's agents she's been smuggling in from India."

With that Sayoko turned and headed out.

C2 glanced over at Marino with half lidded eyes. "So, you just wanna admit that the entire thing was petty and stupid so Sayoko will let us go when she gets back?"

"Yeah, sounds good to me… Part of it was just me trying to get your mind off of your 'shit day' anyways, that and to fuck with you. Admittedly I could've thought that through better given how badly it set you off." Marino replied with some exasperation. "In all seriousness though, I wasn't planning on butting in with you and X so thoroughly, more like suggest a friends with benefits kind of thing and then see where that goes. Just to experiment, see if it works out, if not then no biggie. Even if you decide against it, I don't really mind."

"No biggie?"

"Reploids aren't bound as strictly by human hangups and this kind of relationship is becoming more popular as we try to experiment with creating our own cultures independent of the nations that built us, especially following the backlash after the Uprising screwed everyone over."

C2 hummed thoughtfully. "I'll consider it, but X has the final say. Then again, he's sleeping with a wanted mass murderer, so I think master thief won't faze him much if he agrees." She muttered sardonically.

"That's according to Britannia, right?" Marino asked nervously.

C2 looked away in shame, her 'ear' antenna folding back in the process, causing Marino to exhibit some degree of concern. "I… I've had issues with almost going viral in the past… They're resolved… But I don't think I'll ever make up for what I've done while under its effects…"

Marino sighed and scooted over next to C2, gently pulling the other Reploid close, much to C2's embarrassment. "If it was a viral thing, it's not really _your_ fault is it? Even the strongest wills are helpless against the Maverick Viruses. Besides, clearly your bondmate knows this otherwise he wouldn't have bothered, would he?" She pointed out as she nestled C2's head against her chest, the other Reploid flushing as she realized how _flexible_ Marino's armor was.

"I err… Guess so." She conceded.

Marino raised a sly eyebrow. "It's all about what we do with our lives, take me for example, I was built to be a 'fashion' model with 'added options'. Which basically meant I was a sex unit. After a point I decided 'screw this' and fled rather than get tossed out once the Noble who'd had me built got bored of my presence rather than let me work off my indentures."

"Eventually I was found by a Ninja clan who decided that training me was for some reason a good investment of their time, or something, not really sure what was running through Hard Master's head when he agreed. Anyway, I learned skills from them that I used to raid Britannian Nobles and corporations that were so obscenely focused on themselves or profits that they jacked up prices insanely and use the results of my raids to raise proceeds for the needy or to break strangleholds certain companies held on the medical market. A modern-day robin hood, or at least the idealized version of him, if you will. We Reploids are not bound by our design as much as the Mechaniloids are, we have the freedom to make something out of ourselves."

There was a brief pause before Marino began to laugh. "God, that sounded _pretentious_ when you say it out loud, like some shittily written character in some checkout aisle novella." She chuckled.

C2 chuckled as well. "Yeah it does. By the way… How long have you been at this?"

"About three years… Give or take." Marino replied.

"Hmph, age and beauty I guess." C2 snarked.

"See? A little pep talk goes a long way doesn't it?"

C2 giggled in response. "Y'know, I think X might like you, the whole thief thing aside what you're doing isn't morally wrong. Of course, there'd have to be a bit of dating first, X and I didn't exactly hit it off until a few dates in y'know."

She rolled her eyes. "Figures. Guess I'll have to put on the charm offensive to get anywhere. Preferably before Marty gets the same idea."

C2 gave her an unsure look. "Exactly _how_ many female Reploids are interested in X?"

"More than you'd think to be honest." Marino admitted. "X has the whole pretty boy thing going on but he's also more approachable than Zero was."

The verdant haired Reploid's eye twitched.

The other Reploid just shrugged in reply. "Yeah, that's what you get when you pick the desirable bachelor." She said as she gently patted C2 on the head.

* * *

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Diethard Reid frowned as he looked over the latest reports inside the perpetually busy intelligence analysis center. "Hmm, these movements are starting to concern me… Guam isn't anywhere near Siberia… A retaliation strike? Either way we'll advise Todoh to put our defenses on alert. Oh and send a message to Zero about it." He instructed.

"Understood sir." One of the analysts replied as they turned back to their work, leaving Diethard looking at the immense global situation board and the known force deployments of Britannian, EU, Chinese, Soviet, Australian, UFN and unaligned, IE minor nation and insurgent, forces.

He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the concentration of Chinese forces towards the north of the Federation's current borders.

"Play out the movement of those units currently in the Chinese north, near the south of Manchuria and Mongolia, over the last few months." Diethard ordered.

One of the operators nodded and did as instructed, Diethard watching them idly shift around for training exercises before a _massive_ spike in movement towards the North coincided with Britannia's own troop movements.

He frowned, slowly beginning to put the pieces together. _"I see… I'll have to investigate this more, because whatever's occurring here is concerning. And it may not end well for _us_."_

* * *

Kusukabe sighed as he sat down at the bar with Chiba, the clean nature of the officer's club contrasting with the grungier nature of the bars she'd used to visit as a fighter pilot in the JASDF, back before Britannia either demolished them or took them over with their own pilots, the woman eyeing him up suspiciously. "So, Colonel, I've been meaning to ask. You were a devout nationalist before the invasion and even up until shortly before Zero appeared… To the point that some people considered you _racist_ against Britannians… What happened?"

He chuckled. "You can say I had a talk with… _Revelation_…" Kusakabe admitted more dramatically then he'd intended.

"Colonel… Be serious." She admonished him.

The older man sat back. "I_ am_ being serious. I was in the initial planning stages of what would become the hotel hijacking when I encountered a curious woman… We discussed the matter of Japan long and passionately, admittedly nearly coming to blows at times. But at the end I recognized a key reality… The old Japan was dead, Britannia had thoroughly _extinguished_ it. The government and bureaucracy were gone. The remnants of our Imperial Family, whose role was merely symbolic by this point as we're both aware, reduced to paupers hiding in our old embassy in Australia. The Self-Defense Forces shattered with only the Maritime Forces maintaining any form of greater force cohesion outside what used to be most of our Submarine corps… All that remained was our people, humans and Reploids slaving away for Britannia in bondage, never to receive the same treatment as their conquerors." He recalled as he stared wistfully into space.

He exhaled softly. "It was through this that I realized… My plans were idiotic, _insane_, doomed to bring me nothing but my own _destruction_, if not at Britannia's hands then by Zero's… Sawasaki was a puppet who thought too much of his own agency… And as much as it pains me to admit, Katase and the rest of the JLF's command staff alongside most of Kyoto were fools dragging their feet in the past trying to revive a nation that had long expired for their own gain… Zero was the only way forwards, he _is_ the only way forwards." He told her firmly, a strong conviction in his voice.

Chiba found herself surprised by Kusakabe's tone but filed it away at the back of her mind for later investigation. "I see…" She replied as she turned back to her drink, wondering if there wasn't more to the story than Kusakabe let on.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**San Diego Safari Park, Britannian Homeland.**

Prince Odysseus eu Britannia smiled as he watched some lion cubs play in their enclosure despite the heat of the southern California sun, Schneizel sitting next to him, the other man not quite as enthusiastic about the animals.

Their security detail, a mix of plainclothes agents and uniformed guardsmen and Reploids in tropical combat gear scattered about nearby with bullpup M16A1 linear rifles, a vast improvement over the older M16 that featured an externally mounted magazine after Colt finally addressed the _endless_ complaints about the old internally mounted design suffering severe jamming issues in addition to a litany of problems with the door that covered the internal magazine well.

Already the infantry were singing the model's praises.

Several canid Wolfloids and the more familiar helmetlike Mets were also close at hand, scanning idly to maintain the false impression that they were mere mechaniloids rather than having Reploid level intelligence, a common misconception being that Reploids couldn't have non-humanoid or otherwise non-anthro type forms.

Likewise, Schneizel's attendant Kanon Maldini was close at hand, not for the first time Odysseus wondered if the rumors that his brother was actually bisexual or homosexual had any merit. Certainly, Kanon's statements about him being one of the 'unusual things' the Second Prince was interested in didn't help as some viewed it as a virtual admission.

Even if the_ real_ meaning behind it was because Kanon was a practicing crossdresser. Odysseus always found Schneizel's tolerance of eccentricities both charitable and at times baffling.

Earl Asplund and the recently dubbed Countess Einstein being among them.

"I see you've made another grant to the Zoological Association." Schneizel noted as a sparrow flitted through the trees behind them.

"Yes. They're having a hard time maintaining all the animals we've been forced to relocate from Europa that've had their Zoos and Aquariums damaged or destroyed with their current funding levels, the same for their museums of varying kinds. The cultural facilities in our own territories as well have had a rough time, especially the museum ships and other vehicles in various collections with their almost incessant need for maintenance on top of the damage the Mavericks did to many of them. So many cultural and historical artefacts lost in the rage of war, it's tragic isn't it brother?"

Schneizel nodded. "Indeed, and on top of that tragedy we have the fear. People shouldn't have to consider leaving their homes a threat to their safety. Freak accidents happen yes but nobody should live in terror of insurgents or a foreign power bombing them while they're visiting the Zoo or going out to buy groceries." He stated sadly.

The First Prince frowned. "This world exists only to consume the weak… I can see why Zero's words have such a wide appeal."

"Careful Odysseus, those words are borderline treasonous. Were you anyone but my brother I would've been forced to have you arrested." Schneizel warned, his eyes narrowing.

Odysseus turned to his brother in shock. "Brother, I am aware as much as the next Royal that sedition is a serious offense, but a simple observation such as that-"

"I know, but unless the Emperor countermands that order from Liath, it stands." Schneizel replied grimly.

"That's…"

"Absurd? I'm aware. People in this country, be they human or Reploid, are increasingly afraid to voice their opinions with father letting Liath run wild and instituting new policies the hardliners in the Imperial Party are all too happy to enact. Policies that I strongly believe he's _ordered_ her to enact. Even simple observations about our nation on the internet not even related to the Royal Family in the slightest can get one a visit from local, county, or state level police should they trigger certain algorithms, even the ISB in rare cases. There's even rumors she's created an Imperial Inquisition as a branch of Internal Security while also beginning to undermine the power of Congress and even the nobles."

"By Darwin, what is the world coming to?" Odysseus gasped. "Is father truly going against the Magna Carta!? He'd have to be **mad** to consider it; the nobility will _revolt_ if that is the case!"

Schneizel nodded. "That is what confuses me, despite the increasingly cryptic nature of his actions, father's intellect remains sound and his reasoning quite intact. Either he's capable of _hiding_ madness better than we know… Or he is doing this_ intentionally _for some purpose we are not meantto know. I am not sure which theory is less comforting. In either case I may need to make my move for the crown sooner than expected…"

Odysseus frowned but said nothing further on that matter, having long detested the entire subject of the struggle for succession and being more than willing to relinquish his claim when the shooting started. "These are strange times brother…"

"Indeed, they are..."

* * *

**Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Sigma entered the office and sat down in a prepared chair opposite Nunnally's desk.

"Ah, Commander Sigma, how have you been?" Nunnally inquired sweetly as she tilted her head up at him, were it not for her blindness she would've been looking directly at his face.

"I've been well, Your Highness." Sigma replied candidly, keeping up a cheerful front for the young girl. "There was an incident involving some Mavericks not long before your arrival, but it was handled with no civilian casualties." He informed her.

Nunnally nodded at him. "That's very good, it's always reassuring to hear that lives are saved."

"Indeed it is." Sigma acknowledged before switching to a more serious topic. "So, the rumor in the grapevine is that the SAZ is being re-established soon, aren't you worried about the backlash? You are running directly contrary to Imperial policy, even Princess Euphemia was aware of that when she attempted it."

"I believe that if people see our intentions are genuine, that they may give it a chance." Nunnally replied firmly, even if there were lingering doubts about why she was being allowed to get even this far with the idea.

Did the Emperor _know_ she was bound to fail and allowed her to go forward with it to serve as a lesson? A chilling thought, but she at least had to try, it was Japan's _last _best chance for a peaceful solution. To give Euphie some closure.

If it failed, then…

Well, it was war then. She never saw the aftermath of the invasion, but she _knew_ that Suzaku and Lelouch had dragged her through fields of death, lying to try and keep her from realizing what was going on around them.

Then there was the Black Rebellion. Shinjuku, Saitama, Kyushu, Narita, the SAZ Massacre, Tokyo and all the numerous minor engagements throughout.

Then, just as the dust finally settled, the Maverick Uprising occurred.

Japan had suffered enough indignities within the past two years to be subjected to yet more open bloodshed. But now she was nervous, she'd been so confidant when talking down to Zero from a position of strength, calling him a fool for choosing a violent path, but the realities of the situation were now setting in.

She may very well be that fool instead.

The Japanese were distrustful of the government, and for good reason owing to the backlash that followed the Black Rebellion and of course the Massacre led by Euphemia. The Area's Reploid population, both Japanese and Britannian was for largely unified against everyone around them via their joint oppression following the Uprising and were equally distrustful if not more so.

Prior heavy-handed governments, particularly Cornelia's, had done her no favors either, and Nunnally had the inkling feeling that the first SAZ cost Euphie a great deal more than she'd or Suzaku had let on. Something she'd ask the latter about when she got the opportunity.

Which further reinforced the feeling of being set up for failure. Fine, if that was what they wished to do, so be it. But like her brother and her mother, she wouldn't concede defeat to her enemies so easily.

A vi Britannia's pride was not something easily trifled with.

Sigma nodded after a few moments, accepting her argument, or at least hearing it out. "I may disagree on that point Viceroy, but only time will tell."

"_You mean to say time will tell whether or not I've used the rope I've been given to hang myself."_ Nunnally thought dryly.

Idealistic she may be, but she wasn't stupid.

* * *

Inwardly, this was practically a boon for Sigma, as the political chaos that would result following the announcement would be the perfect cover to infect a few more hapless Reploids with the Maverick virus. _"I'll keep an eye on this development, perhaps I can use it to my advantage soon. Especially if the language doesn't have any concessions for Reploids."_ Sigma thought without a single tell of his true nature being hinted at to Nunnally, the two conversing about other topics related to the Area and its governance for some time afterward.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Residential Block 23, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

"So, remind me what's just stopping someone from attaching an FTL drive to a projectile and using a wave of them as fleet killers? Or to bombard hostile planets?" Marino asked after they finished up some Sci-Fi movie.

C2 finished up her initial report and glanced over at Marino. "Because it's messy and stupid? You don't just sling WMDs around at the drop of a hat unless you want someone to retaliate in kind, and if nobody is capable of retaliating just use a fleet. Fleets are more versatile for both warfare and peacekeeping purposes anyways." She explained, briefly wondering if writing would be a suitable career for her if she ever decided to hang up her weapons so to speak.

She eventually decided that she'd probably just go run a scrapyard or something to restore old war machines. Armored vehicles, Knightmares, planes, VTOLs, boats, trucks. Whatever she got her hands on to maintain them for future generations so that they would better understand _why_ people in this age fought.

She'd taken enough life anyways and she wasn't even _done_ yet, it wasn't nearly soon enough to start thinking about how to give back, especially when the military drawdowns would begin when… _If_ they won.

C2 wasn't nearly naïve or stupid enough to think the Maverick Hunters would welcome her with open arms. Not after the crimes she'd committed, even if many of them weren't of her own accord.

"Fair point, though I'd follow through on not being a dumbass on combat miss 'I increased local gravity to 20Gs of force and nearly killed all of my allies with a potential miscalculation because I can't learn how to break contact and make a plan unless it's X because I don't want to hurt him'." Marino mocked, causing C2 to scowl in annoyance.

"I get it, I'm fucking dumb sometimes." She muttered, her face flushed red with embarrassment as her antenna folded back.

"More than sometimes based on your recent combat record." Marino corrected flatly.

C2's eye twitched before she exhaled. "Listen, I'm gonna head out, see if I can't find something going down to investigate for Zero…"

Marino shrugged. "Not much of a plan y'know."

"Like I care." C2 scoffed as she stood up and gathered some things before heading out the door, leaving her roommate alone.

Marino groaned. "If you wanted me to shut up, you should've just told me to! What're you on your period or something? That's not even physically possible for us!"

"Up yours!" Came the muffled reply from C2.

"Shut the fuck up!" One of their neighbors yelled, cutting their argument short.

Marino shrugged and turned the TV up slightly to annoy the man who'd interrupted, another of Diethard's agents.

Spite was a wonderful thing sometimes.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Geass Order Central Chinese Enclave, Taklamakan Desert, Chinese Federation.**

V.V. strode up to where Bartley was working on their two subjects. "How goes the work General?" He inquired as he glanced up at the men in the stasis tanks.

"So far we're ahead of schedule, Leaf has shown no signs of rejecting the new implants or the connection to the upgraded Arminius Tacitus, but Orange… Well we've been forced to construct a new unit based on the Sutherland Ikaros owing to his fixation on the RPI-13." Bradley admitted.

"How annoying and trite… Nonetheless, just keep working on it, we can find some purpose for the Siegfried I suppose…" There was a glint of brilliance in his eyes as V.V. suddenly turned to Bartley. "General?"

"Yes, Your Highness?" The portly man asked, wondering what he was intending to do.

"I'll be contacting our agents in the homeland; I'll be assigning them a mission shortly."

"And what exactly is my part in this my lord?" The general asked nervously.

V.V. grinned ferally. "I want you to have our personnel repaint the Siegfried _pink_." He told him before walking away with a chuckle.

"_Charles… Something's off about you… Perhaps _this_ should elicit a reaction."_ He thought ruefully. _"After all, if you're really devoted to Ragnarok, then what occurs shouldn't cause you much distress, if at all. Your move, _dear_ brother."_

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Shinjuku Development Block 5, Shinjuku Ghetto, Area 11.**

It was nearly two hours before C2 reached the old metro entrance where she and Lelouch had first truly met.

Or what was left of it after an A-9 Tempest II crashed into the building, a hard landing to be precise with the aircraft having come to a stop at an angle inside what was left of the structure, the stripped remains of the bent and twisted airframe still present and oxidizing away atop a pile of rubble. She wasn't sure if the hulk had been leftover from the Black Rebellion or the Uprising, but it was irrelevant at this point.

She hadn't exactly told Lelouch, but she'd partially lied when she said that she'd saved him because she'd been obligated to defend him from the Reploids on Clovis's guard by virtue of his admission that he was a Prince. C2 still believed that protocol was installed in her in the event Nunnally or Lelouch turned up alive so that Clovis could make her their bodyguard once she'd been put back together properly.

Like his engineers could do that after failing to do so for several _years_.

She'd _also _done it because it was the right thing to do after he'd gotten himself mixed up in the entire situation, even considering he'd just ordered nearly a dozen men to commit suicide seconds prior.

Her reasoning processes weren't exactly all that functional at the time to be honest.

Also to spite Clovis, because honestly, _fuck_ _him_. Especially after all she'd suffered under Code R.

Even if she couldn't even emote spite back then due to the system damage she'd suffered until her program diagnostic and repair had kicked in.

As she reminisced, there was a soft footfall on the debris behind her, the Reploid's armor flaring into being as she spun and aimed her buster at the intruder, whom stood atop the wreck of the attack plane.

The other, a human she realized after a second, was still obscured by the shade from the setting sun and she briefly assumed it was Nemo due to their shape before her low-light vision kicked in.

And C2 found herself looking into a mirror, a mirror who was admittedly wearing an unlatched straitjacket, but a mirror nonetheless.

Standing directly across from her, C.C. smirked softly. "And so, we meet at last my Reploid double." The immortal noted as she strode towards C2, gently walking down the ruined wing of the aircraft.

"C.C. I presume? Not going to lie, can see why Mao was so vehement about hating me if I look _this_ much like you." C2 snarked dryly as she put a hand on her hip. "Man's got taste though if my ass is based on yours."

The green haired immortal shrugged as she passed the Reploid, stopping at the very spot Nemo had interjected herself in to save Lelouch's life, where _she_ had done so in a time that had been wiped clean. "Not exactly the material I'd've used, but it gives you your own charm of sorts. I'd rather that than a carbon copy."

C2 raised an eyebrow and powered down her buster, slowly lowering her weapon. "Wha?" She mumbled with a confused look on her face.

C.C. cocked her head indifferently but didn't turn to look at her. "The whole annoying snark thing, it's a thing I did with Lelouch."

The Reploid immediately powered her buster back on. "With _Lelouch_!? Bullshit! He didn't know a thing about you during the whole Mao fiasco!"

The immortal's smirk widened. "You're sharp at least. Let me ask you something, do you honestly think that the technology used to make you is_ native_ to this world? How there's all these ruins filled with it are so old and impossibly advanced for their age? How nobody had even heard of Albert Wily before despite his supposed prominence as suggested by the number of bases he had around the globe? How your arsenal includes such powerful weapons of which some are merely _theoretical_ _concepts_ to even the most advanced research groups on the planet?" She inquired, looking over her shoulder at her Reploid doppelganger, whom froze as she worked over old thoughts. "Good, so you have questioned it… Because you're here due to _my_ failures… Failures that are why I didn't seek out Lelouch this time due to the blood that has stained my hands as a result, hands that don't belong in his dream or with him at all." She said with a sad smile on her face.

C2 shook off her surprise and hardened her stance, holding her template dead to rights, even though she knew her namesake was immortal and thus didn't care about having a weapon pointed at her. "This time!? What the actual fuck are you going on about!?" She demanded. "Answer me!"

C.C. turned to face her before backing into the shadows. "Beware the ruler of the Fólkvangr, for it was her holy fire that stole the nail which held back Ragnarok during the old times. Now the world's end hangs a knife edge away, the reborn titan of the third act emerges from his slumber, the red knight falls to darkness, and the hammer and sickle lays at the precipice of disaster. All the while the second son gathers strength, threatening the requiem's approach. Do not hesitate to act, Black Valkyrie of Razgriz, lest all be lost." She warned cryptically before vanishing in the shade.

As in _completely_ disappearing despite the shadows being not at all that heavy.

Alarmed, C2 scanned the area with her image intensification software but found nothing, switching to sonar, LIDAR, radar, thermals, etc. All came up the same.

C.C. had just _vanished_ when it should've been impossible.

Unless… Was that C.C., or something else? Hell, given her shit luck she'd just become embroiled in something beyond her understanding.

If she hadn't been from the very beginning.

Disturbed, C2 turned and left as the Caretaker's avatar and C.C., now clad in her guise as Liath, watched from the rafters above.

* * *

**June 17, 2019 ATB.**

**Government Bureau Knightmare Hangar, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Lloyd ate a spoonful from his latest cup of pudding as he scrolled through the latest simulation results.

"I see, so it's as predicted…" He murmured.

The recovery of the Reploid use air glide pack, or what was left of it, by the Britannian Navy had yielded interesting data from its design.

Notable was the inclusion of a limiter to reduce power _influx_, thus confirming his theory about Code R's former test subject.

But again and again he kept running into the same brick wall, the classification level regarding this info. Most of Code R was still like that as well, much to his frustration.

He glanced at the phone.

Perhaps calling in a few favors was in order.

* * *

**AN: And that's it for this chapter, shorter than normal, but there's a few bombshells here that'll come into play later, especially given that C.C. has finally revealed herself to her Reploid expy, under the full expectation she'll inform Lelouch.**

**Naturally being C.C. it had to be something cryptic that could be decoded by someone aware enough of the context.**

**Which is not Lelouch, maybe, yet, who knows?**

**Also originally there was supposed to be a tidbit with the Irregular Hunters but they're more or less the mid-game bosses, so I replaced it with a scene between Schneizel and Odysseus that also helps show that even the eldest sons of Charles zi Britannia are starting to be unnerved by the increasingly absolutist nature of his rule. Entirely as he planned to make Lelouch's rebellion further justified.**

**Oh, and before anyone starts, the Magna Carta isn't this mythical pact between the English king and people ensuring the rights of the commoners. It's a pact ensuring the rights of the **_**nobility**_** that was misinterpreted over the centuries after its various issuings to help provide an argument for further limiting the power of monarchs.**

**Not that that is a bad thing.**

**Oh and for anyone who gets **_**why**_** I decided to put in that part about the pink Siegfried.**

**Yeah, I'm **_**that**_** evil.**

**By the way if anyone got the meaning behind the cut I did to Pixy after Lelouch's statement about the world needing to be reset.**

**Don't remember if that was intentional but it's funny as shit anyways. Especially since Pixy's live action segments in the English version are dubbed by Yuri Lowenthal.**

**Better known to Code Geass fans as the voice of Suzaku.**

**Oh and yeah, the M16A1 is just the Britannian AR with a traditional bullpup design.**

**Because the extant one does indeed have an internal magazine for some godforsaken reason as seen in Stage 22 'Bloodstained Euphie' when Euphie reloads the rifle she's firing after expending all of its rounds uselessly against the Gawain.**

**No sane military would ever use such a design because it would be **_**insanely**_** prone to jamming and being impossible to clear without taking the rifle apart since Britannian linear guns use caseless ammo and thus none of the guns have ejection ports for spent casings. Which in the field is a very **_**bad**_** idea to try and do since you'll probably end up getting an assload of dust, dirt, sand and or mud in the workings of your weapon unless you're extremely careful. The ammo well hatch would also be equally prone to breaking or getting stuck, preventing a soldier from reloading their weapon at all.**

**There's kind of a reason why all modern rifles utilize externally mounted magazines or ones that can be cleared with minimal issue in the field, it's just not worth the effort to design a weapon with an internally mounted one that's accessible only through a side-panel, from either a reliability or an ergonomics perspective.**

**It's thus suitably ironic that out of everyone in the original TV show, the **_**Chinese**_** have the most sensible assault rifle design because I have no honest to god idea where the magazine is on the Black Knights/JLF SMG and the second rifle they use is just a long box with a barrel sticking out the end and no other discernable features from what little I've seen while rewatching R2.**

**Oh right, because it's still roughly 1964, Star Trek hasn't come out yet, therefore the very concept of the Mary Sue, at least as a name, is foreign to the Code Reploid timeline.**


	9. Turn 9: Yellow Bricks

**AN: Chapter 9. Not much else to say here on my end.**

**Reviews:**

**Undead3: Not mad, just annoyed that they jumped the shark with the tech in R2, the Knightmares were decently well balanced (Aside from the Gawain yeeting everything with the Hadron cannons) in R1. Fast, but vulnerable to even basic anti-armor munitions due to their design emphasizing speed over protection. With limited operation times to boot.**

**Code Geass is cheesy but power cheese isn't the type of Cheese that I like.**

_**Looks at Bioware casually setting the internet ablaze by sparking massive arguments over who would win in a fight between Valkorian or Palpatine because herp de derp SWTOR turned into a shitshow of ideas that keep jumping ever larger sharks since they started the whole Eternal Empire thing which was rapidly rendered worthless and everything involved wiped clean because it broke the entire goddamn lore harder than even Disney could've managed meaning the only thing of substance occurring is that [REDACTED] got axed for good.**_

**Moving on.**

**Then comes R2 and suddenly you have the Shinkiro, Lancelot Albion, Shen-Hu and Guren SEITEN systematically trashing every grunt in sight because the still limited power supply for Knightmares is apparently no longer a consideration despite it being a plot element sporadically in R1. Nor are infantry or anything else even a remote threat at that point, despite the Yamato Alliance successfully downing two Sutherlands with _RPGs_ during the Battle of Saitama.**

**In R2 they only used it to give Britannia an excuse to capture Kallen, and then only due to lack of maintenance rather than energy drain.**

**It's annoying and almost entirely the result of Bandai's meddling to try and make CG more like Gundam. Which even in the early shows had rank and file mechs at least be a decent threat to the protagonists, with the Gundam notably almost getting destroyed at least _twice_ by MS-07 Goufs.**

**As for the mechs being better than most other weapons in Anime, it's because most of these shows are designed to exemplify mech combat, and the staff either doesn't have the time or reason to make anything else be more than cannon fodder, or they don't know how absurd or idiotic the_ basic_ tactics they're displaying regular non-mech troops using are.**

**Of course that won't be so much the case here, it's already mentioned that aircraft are a _severe_ threat to most Knightmares, and Kallen almost getting rekt over the Pacific by the FALKEN before Scarface intervenes, despite the Guren's performance, is proof enough of that. Ultimately a Knightmare can't compete with a Fighter Jet in the latter's own arena if we're taking the most absurdist parts out of the equation. Especially since both the Guren and Lancelot are _testbeds_ at their core.**

**They were _never_ supposed to be used in sustained combat for prolonged periods, but to serve to demonstrate technology for future use in mass production machines, and it needs to show as they start getting outclassed even in spite of the upgrades they get as cost input outstrips gains received, the Albion and SEITEN will basically be as good as either machine will ever be, Lloyd and Rakshata dump _everything_ they have left into those two packages, but ultimately even they're gonna get outclassed as well.**

**Not unlike your average Gundam to be honest, which typically end up falling behind the tech curve before the season is out and get replaced by a newer and more capable machine, with only the ever modular Barbatos and the firstborn RX-78-2 making it to the end of their series as the lead machine from day one to the final episode. Of these two, only the RX-78-2 was mostly unchanged, having received only a magnetic coating upgrade for its joints because Amuro was literally outreacting the machine due to his newtype abilities giving him limited combat precognition.**

**Anyways, with that out of the way, the first thing about Mecha Anime being the way it is I can understand, you have to push product when you can. Although UC Gundam does make a point of aircraft being more than what most mobile suits can handle without flight sub-units of their own, and tanks have held their own on a couple of occasions.**

**Land Battleships likewise toss Zakus and GMs alike around like toys with their 14" 16" 18" or what have you High Explosive shells. Mirrored in Code Reploid by warships being a still relevant threat at the moment to even the likes of the Shinkiro provided they have the missiles to be so, and with Britannia upgrading their aquatic surface vessels with Blaze Luminous projectors to make them even more deadly by increasing the amount of damage they can soak up from ranged attacks.**

**The second thing regarding Mecha anime is more irksome but there's not much you can really do about it, they're animators and storyboard staff. Unless military stuff is their hobby, such as the people behind GuP, Battle Fairy Yukikaze, and Kotobuki, there's not much that can be done.**

**.**

**On a last note, as for the Star Trek comment, that seemed to have gone over your head. I was instead referring to the term Mary Sue (And by extension, the male counterpart of Gary Stu or whatever one calls that), which originated in a very bad Star Trek self-insert fanfic and became infamous since the main character was seemingly perfect and had only superficial flaws at best, often having the entire plot and all the characters in whatever work they're in adhere to their whims.**

**[Something that terrifies me with my writing, since I'm doing my damndest to avoid C2 being construed as that. Which is partially why she's so screwed up despite how capable she is, that and why her relationship with Lelouch, among others, is tenuous at even the best of times due to clashing personalities and temperaments. Ultimately though it comes down to writing the other characters as reacting like how they would to them, notably Lelouch was and still is rather confrontive with C2 at times due to their disagreements on eachother's actions while X, being himself and therefore a kind and gentle soul who's honestly too pure and good for most timelines, approaches her more like he would, with care and careful consideration.]**

**The actual use of Mary Sue for many things is debatable, but the most accurate use of it is to be applied to any form of excessively overt power fantasy, particularly those featuring a self-insert character as the MC or a representative character in the place of a self-insert.**

**Most writers go through that phase of imagining, some never post anything, others post stuff that should've been better off remaining on their hard drive.**

**Some end up making money off of movies and novels because the system is that garbage but I digress.**

**Anyways, 2019 ATB in Code Reploid is 1964 by the Gregorian Calendar, so Star Trek TOS's first episode won't air for another two years in the story, meaning the term Mary Sue as we know it doesn't exist in-universe until afterwards.**

**It was more of a trivia tidbit to build background lore than anything of real plot relevance so I don't _quite_ understand why you got so hung up on it.**

* * *

**June 18, 2019 ATB.**

**Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

C2 watched as a quartet of tank transporters rolled past the café she was at. Each vehicle bore _almost _typical Britannian M60A1 MBTs on their trailers and were led and trailed by an armed escort Humvee, bright orange hazard lights affixed to the vehicles flashing brilliantly to ward away civilian drivers from the heavily laden military trucks.

If that failed then the machine guns on the Humvees were more than sufficient to do so.

She noted that all four of the tanks had an unusual track and landspinner combination, with a new type of landspinner replacing the roadwheels of a typical tracked vehicle.

"_Must be a new model, probably going to be the production standard from here on out…"_ She thought as she watched them drive off, a couple students taking pictures of the convoy as it went by, a few Pararoid R-5s and Jamminger Bs flitting about to watch from above for anyone who might make a possible move on the procession of military vehicles.

She sighed and adjusted the brim of her baseball cap as the traffic picked up again before taking a sip of her coffee, a decaf since caffeine had utterly no effect on Reploids.

There was a gentle hand on her shoulder. "This seat taken?" A familiar voice asked.

C2 tilted her head up and looked over at X, whom was also in civilian mode. "Only by you." She told him with a smarmy grin on her face.

He rolled his eyes and sat down. "How've you been holding up?"

C2 looked down at the half-eaten scone on the table, sweeping away a fly that had been buzzing close. "I've been better…" She admitted.

X glanced up as he heard a VTOL transit overhead, a police Hiller model given the small airframe. "I'm almost afraid to ask if you're being open with it."

She snorted softly. "Found out a couple days ago that a close friend of mine was murdered by Storm Eagle's troops last year… Makes me almost wish you hadn't blown him apart before I could… Or that he wasn't an unwilling participant in the uprising…" She told him, the last sentence coming out as a conspiratorial whisper.

The reveal that some semblance of the infected Maverick Hunter's original self had managed to hold on long enough to demand that X destroy him had been disheartening to say the least. It was a reminder that nobody was a monster by nature… But that the _potential_ to become one existed.

_"Evil is a Journey... Not a lightswitch… Unless you get infected by the Maverick Virus or Geassed…"_ She thought ruefully.

X looked down guiltily.

"You couldn't have saved everyone X… Especially not with the situation being global." She consoled him, gently putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Still, I could've tried harder… Every time I hesitated, every time I believed that by reaching out to someone I could stop them… I let who knows how many innocent people die by wasting time..."

C2 gently squeezed his bicep, as his forearm was too rigid by virtue of it being ceratanium plate. "You've made the calls better than I would've…"

He wiped his tears away and looked over at her. "I'm not sure if I can agree with that. Sometimes shooting first and talking second is the only thing that works…"

She sighed and looked away, wondering how to change the subject away from something this morbid.

"So… Er… This might be a bad time, but I need to talk to you about something in private later…" She finally said, a bit sheepishly.

X blinked at her in confusion.

C2 began to chuckle nervously. "Well..."

* * *

**June 18, 2019 ATB.**

**OSI detachment HQ, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Rolo frowned as he and Clara looked over their orders. "You're certain he'll come?" Rolo inquired as he looked up at the Earl who was his current 'boss'.

"Of course, he was rather close to the Ashford heiress, he will no doubt wish to pay his respects to her after his Reploid agent discovered her fate. This will be a prime opportunity to redeem the OSI for its failure in Pendragon." Earl Graves informed them, the pompus man almost sneering at the two 'children' he had to put up with. "Do not hesitate to take the kill shot if you find yourselves unable to make a live capture."

Clara glanced at Rolo, aware that Lelouch had imprinted on him during their tenure as his siblings after the Emperor's second Geassing of the young man following, approximately a month before Storm Eagle struck Area 11 and forced them to abscond back to the homeland with him on a submarine.

"Understood." Clara acknowledged for them both as the two turned on their heels and strode out.

Detachment leader Viletta Nu glanced over at them warily before returning to the report she'd been reading.

"_So, they're expecting Lelouch to return to Area 11… Not surprising given how important liberating this country is to Zero's goals."_ She thought as she walked over to a console replaying surveillance footage. "Anything yet?" She asked one of the console operators.

The two men looked at eachother. "We did find something of interest commander Nu." The one on the left said as he swapped feeds to show C2 walking down the street.

Viletta's eyes narrowed, she remembered that C2 had a civilian mode, but she wasn't sure if this Reploid was her. Not without proof at least, otherwise they could be wasting resources detaining a random civilian. "Keep an eye on this one and do it _discreetly_. If she's who she looks like, she may provide us with information and patterns we could use to track Zero and possibly Nemo once they arrive."

"At once, Milady." He said before noting something and frowning.

"What is it?" Viletta asked him.

"A high priority communique from the Homeland directed towards the local ISB branch, they're ordering all four-hundred insurgents captured during the Black Rebellion and retained in Area 11 to be readied for short-range transport at a moment's notice." The technician replied.

Her eyes narrowed, a _thorough_ medical analysis from Liath's personnel had confirmed she'd indeed been suffering from retrograde amnesia induced by blood loss, and that the trauma of her being attacked by rioters had managed to re-awaken her memories of her close combat training, enabling her to get the drop on her attackers after which point the rest of her memories rapidly flooded back on their own.

She'd also been given a warning to watch herself, as she was still under observation to ensure that she wasn't suffering from lasting brain damage.

Which also meant that her feelings for Ohgi had been _legitimate_.

Viletta still wasn't sure how to feel about that. Except that she was _glad_ he'd been set free.

"Who sent it?" She asked as she glanced over at the man.

The man's eyes widened. "It says it was sent by Executrix Liath!"

"_The Executrix? I see… This is... Concerning…"_

* * *

**June 18, 2019 ATB.**

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Zero glanced over the file Ohgi had brought to him. ="You're certain that this might be a possible scenario?"= He inquired.

"With all due respect Zero, it might be the only way we can evacuate this many people if our prediction that the new Viceroy will attempt to pardon most of the Black Knights bar you comes to pass." Ohgi told him. "It also has your usual flair to it."

="It'll still take at least a few weeks to procure this many costumes and have them transported, even if they're going to be Hallow's Eve affairs rather than anything more detailed."= The masked man pointed out.

"Which is why it's good that there's several warehouses chock full of them in Area 11 courtesy of an ordering error filed to an automated costume factory supplying Zero outfits for an expected Hallows Eve costume drought last year. Said error went unrectified due to the Uprising and nobody bothered to shut the place or its supply line down, now they company that owns them is sitting on hundreds of thousands of Zero costumes they can't sell. _High quality _costumes no less."

Zero's mask tilted upwards. ="That seems to be a rather fortunate chain of coincidences. I do not believe in coincidences that happen in such a manner Ohgi."=

"Yeah, I know it's strange. The factory had plenty of time to discover the discrepancy, but nobody acted on it." He agreed.

Lelouch frowned, wondering if the 'original' C.C. had something to do with this. Such a line of thought had become relevant after C2 reported her encounter in Shinjuku.

What was her angle, what game was she playing…?

Regardless, he should make use of this windfall if possible. ="I'll get to work on a plan to organize as many people as possible, just make sure our people are in place for when it's time to enact it. We may need aid from the Chinese if possible."=

"That'll take time, and the Britannian West Pacific Fleet is already on edge after one of Marty's subs got detected by a frigate south of Shikoku, the _Ikaruga_ is also in need of maintenance and repairs after two successive combat sorties, on top of the damage the entire air fleet suffered. Which leaves us the _Isaribi _and _Ankou_, which despite their speed, will need about a week at the least for safe transit to Area 11, especially if we have to run silent." Ohgi pointed out.

Zero placed a hand on his chin. ="Either way, it's our best option right now."

"Understood. I'll be taking my leave then." Ohgi acknowledged as before turning and walking out of the room, passing Urabe whom was on his way in.

"Zero, Diethard sent me over with a report." Urabe informed him.

="What would that be? Is it another inclination that the Britannians may be preparing to launch a retribution attack on us?"=

"It's believed that many of our troops who are being held in Japan may be subject to summary execution in the coming weeks as a statement against the UFN and USJ." Urabe informed him.

Lelouch's eyes narrowed behind his mask. ="Is this information accurate?"= He inquired.

"Diethard believes so, we picked up some minor OSI chatter about it in the process."

Zero nodded. ="I see, this changes things… I'll be taking the Shinkiro to Area 11 ahead of the main force."=

Urabe was briefly taken aback. "Zero, I'm aware that C2 is present there, but the Britannians also know your identity!" He exclaimed.

="Only the OSI and a handful of very high ranking officials, without proof they cannot do anything beyond sending a few covert agents after me, our forces in Area 11 can easily handle them."= He promised.

"If that's what you wish, what should I tell the others?" Urabe inquired as he stood back at attention.

="Once I leave, inform Ohgi that I'll be going ahead to personally scope out the situation and will be relaying orders and adjustments to the plan through Nemo after my departure, she will act as my emissary in lieu of my presence. This plan will require almost total secrecy to succeed."=

The man nodded. "Understood." With that, he turned on his heel and strode out.

Lelouch sighed. _"Wonderful, now I have to accelerate my timetable… It's clear they're trying to draw me out since there are too many Reploids here for their teams to break in."_ He thought as he tried to think about where he should begin, the data C2 had stolen in Pendragon had revealed much about some of his previous identities. The first being advisor Julius Kingsley, a renowned strategist who'd won North Africa from the EU, and whom had been presumed dead in the aftermath of Shin Hyuuga Shiang's rebellion in Euro Britannia. The Second had surprised him, Lelouch Lamperouge, a student at Ashford Academy with _two_ younger siblings, Clara.

And Rolo.

"_No wonder Rolo was so close to me, I'd formed an impression on him in that time given that was his first assignment that didn't involve _assassinating_ the person he was supposed to be monitoring."_

The two had also been assigned to protect him when he was Kinglsey, though he could only presume that Clara had been assigned elsewhere when he was under his final identity, Alan Spacer, as C2 lacked any intel on it since he'd still been in Area 11 when the Pendragon Insurgency occurred mid-way into the Uprising after the Reploid decided to take advantage of the chaos to press her luck.

He also had to presume the two had Geass for safety's sake, at least until he confirmed that they didn't.

Lelouch hated it when simple plans became complicated.

* * *

**June 19, 2019 ATB.**

**Western Palace, New Pendagon, Area 11.**

Charles zi Britannia stood overlooking the city from his chambers, watching the people below scurry around like ants. Such was the intended symbolism of the palace, that all were _beneath_ the Emperor or Empress.

After his 'success', such theatrics only served to make him sick. _"So many lost, all for what? To punish me and C.C. for our hubris? Was witnessing man turn into a rabid animal and destroy himself not enough? No, the gods intend to see us _break_ for our crimes. And I cannot blame them."_ He mused. He was forced to stick to this abominable script out of necessity, not able to be a father to at least _some _of his children, not able to teach them the lessons they needed to _survive_ in the world that was Britannia.

Nor be allowed to reform the nation that he ruled. The nation that after the Emblem of Blood, had fully committed itself in its downward spiral towards its current policies due to his grandfather's blind belief in Social Darwinism.

The next emblem hadn't yet begun and he'd already lost many of his progeny, every loss bitterly reminding him of the nature of Britannia as she now existed, even before the inevitable conflict between Lelouch and Schneizel would occur should his plan succeed.

He understood quite well why C.C. was so bitter against the gods and he would be lying if he said he wasn't as well. Any attempt to change the course drastically so that Lelouch needn't act was met with reset to prior to that action taking place, and the Caretaker's patience had already been worn thin by C.C.'s repeated attempts to rectify her greatest failure.

Allowing Benjamin Franklin to be Geassed by Ricardo von Britannia into betraying the American Revolution, thus preventing him from getting the French to intervene on the side of the Colonists.

Regardless, the world had lasted a year longer than he'd expected. The Geass order had suffered a major setback when two Reploids, one of them being C.C.'s doppleganger, had inadvertently destroyed the Antarctic thought elevator during their battle with Chill Penguin during the Uprising, the latter having overtaken the facility it was located in under the assumption it was intended for weather control research. Which it actually was in addition to its purpose of protecting the elevator due to the ancient Geass civilization's arcane technology being capable of such feats.

Not long before that, Flame Mammoth's troops_ intentionally_ blew up the one in Zilkhstan's capital under the impression it was a cultural artefact. Meanwhile the elevator in the Caribbean was destroyed inadvertently by heavy gunfire and missile bombardment from warships of the Britannian Navy during a landing operation to retake one of the major islands from Launch Octopus's forces.

This necessitated that the Order construct replacement elevators, a process which was taking time and resources V.V. had not wished to allocate and was still far from completion, in all likelihood it would take until sometime near the end of the year to replace the two Britannian controlled elevators that had been lost, further increasing the imperative that the Soviet and British elevators be brought under their control.

Ironic, Reploids had repeatedly proven to be the spanner in the works that neither himself nor C.C., or even Lelouch could ever hope to become despite not taking center stage until the Uprising the previous year, perhaps the Caretaker's decision to merge the timelines had merit after all.

He closed his eyes. Nevertheless, the Uprising was an ominous portent of things to come, Charles sincerely doubted it would be the last time Reploids raised arms against humanity en-masse, nor would the death toll drop any in the coming wars.

"Even a single beat of a butterfly's wings can create a great hurricane which levels all in its path." He whispered softly.

He just hoped that someone could_ stop _said hurricane.

And chillingly, there were only _two_ individuals left with the power to do so.

Mega Man X.

And Mega Woman C2...

Two Reploids held the key to a peaceful future for both man and machine.

Charles hoped for the sake of all mankind that they were up to the task.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

"Listen Marino, he said he has to think about it. Yeah, I get it, this is sort of the thing you can joke about but when it comes to being serious you don't just jump into it without thinking because of the interpersonal dynamic change… Yes I can invite him over some time but we can't have anyone from 'work' there. Alright fine… But if this screws things up between me and him it's on you." C2 said before hanging up. "Fucking hell, threesome sounded like a good idea on paper but now it's just a pain in my ass."

"And now you understand more about why I rejected overly intimate relationships as an unnecessary distraction. Particularly Milly's semi-serious attempts to get me a harem." A familiar voice intoned as Lelouch strode out of the darkness.

"Took you long enough." C2 muttered, glad change the topic to something less asinine than her sex life.

"I had to finalize some things with Ohgi before I left, it was fortunate we had a ready cargo plane capable of relaying the Shinkiro close enough that it could fly the rest of the way, the others will be along in a couple weeks via submarine."

C2 turned to face him. "I assume you wish to investigate Ashford?" She asked.

"Of course…" He intoned.

She nodded and turned on her heel before leading him out of the alleyway.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**Ashford Student Council Clubhouse, Area 11.**

A simple application of Geass had been enough to get them past security and onto the school grounds while C2 handled the cameras and mics during their brief stop at the memorial.

She'd gotten sloppy though, much to Lelouch's chagrin, nearly allowing a handful of Ashford's resident groundskeeping Mets to blow their cover, both having forgotten that Milly had boasted an unusual fondness for the small helmeted machines due to their 'cute factor'.

Thankfully Lelouch had used falsified credentials provided by Sayoko to convince them that they were an OSI inspection team, allowing them to proceed without incident owing to hierarchical commands implemented in Ashford's service Reploids and Mechaniloids that prevented them from questioning the presence or orders of OSI personnel.

C2 naturally was rather pissed off by that, but there was little she could do.

And so Lelouch poured through the records of the previous year leading up to the attack. Disturbingly, every image of Nunnally from the prior years had been expertly edited to feature Rolo or Clara, sometimes both depending on the context.

"_How deep does this rabbit hole go?" _Lelouch wondered as he glanced over at C2. "I think we have everything from here, let's check storage for our things, if anything's left."

The Reploid nodded. "Right. I have some things I wanted to take back anyways."

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "_Sure _you do. It's all going to be junk in storage anyways. Besides, if the intel you inadvertently stole from the Imperial Palace was accurate, then I may have a way to turn Rolo and Clara to our side."

C2 gave him a look.

"I'll explain on the way down." He told her.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**OSI detachment HQ, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

A Reploid operator glanced over at Viletta. "Targets are on Ashford grounds, should we send Rolo and Clara in?" They asked.

Viletta frowned before nodding, despite the nagging feeling warning her against it. "Do it. And put Graves's team on standby just in case." She ordered. _"It's times like this where I wish we had more recon Mets, but most of them have been reallocated to the EU and the units prepping to invade Siberia…"_ She thought bitterly.

"Yes, My Lord."

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**Haneda Airport, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Soldiers stood at attention as the plane carrying the Consul-General of the Chinese Federation, High Eunuch Gao Hai, rolled up to the area where Suzaku awaited with a procession of troops, a mix of humans and Reploids backed by Ride Armors, Vincent Wards, M151 Humvees, and M113 APCs, and shut down its engines.

Li Xingke, leading the much smaller Chinese procession, strode up to him after deplaning. "Is this to attempt to intimidate us Sir Kururugi?" The General asked plainly as an airliner took off in the background, the normal workings of the airport continuing around them even as they spoke.

"I'm well aware of your reputation General. This is more of a show for the public, to ensure them that we remain in control, I have no doubt it'd be the same if the Second Prince were visiting Luoyang." Suzaku replied equally candidly, Xingke nodding in affirment. "You may retain your personal and service weapons provided you have the proper certification to assuage the internal ministry that you're not smuggling arms into the country."

Xingke frowned but said nothing further, only providing the documents for Suzaku to inspect.

All were 100% legitimate, signed off by the Chinese Foreign Minister for diplomatic purposes. "Very good, you may proceed to the consulate." He informed them. "Shall I have the settlement police provide an escort to keep traffic out of the way, or do you wish to keep this low profile given the sudden nature of your arrival?"

"We would prefer this be kept relatively low profile. A few vehicles from our guard detachment at the Consulate should serve as adequate escort." Hao Gai intoned, Suzaku resisting the urge to curl up his nose at the petty little man's shrill voice.

"Very well then Consul-General Hao Gai." Suzaku managed to state evenly. "Your transport is already prepared."

"We thank you for the hospitality. Give my regards to the new Viceroy." The castrated man replied as he strode off to the waiting limo, Xingke following him dutifully.

* * *

Xingke frowned as he remembered the conversation the Tianzi had had with that Sumeragi girl, about Zero's plan to reclaim Japan.

Thus, the young Empress had requested he and Hao Gai go to their consulate in Area 11 to maintain a vigil over the situation. The Eunuchs had entertained the Tianzi's request, having decided to make business dealings with new clients in the leadup to something big between the foreign ministries of China and Britannia.

"_Zero… What's your plan involving China?"_ He wondered as he strode up to the limo, the chauffer holding the door open for him and Hao Gai, with their guards taking the BJ212 jeeps, the vehicles pulling off the tarmac and onto one of the airport service roads soon after once everyone had boarded.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**Ashford Academy Storage, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

C2 swept her vision over a several stacks of boxes. "Nothing of interest here. Just spare swimsuits."

Lelouch snorted dryly as he followed her. "We could be searching the lower levels more thoroughly if we spread out."

C2 eyed him suspiciously. "You want us to split up?"

"For the moment yes." He said, before mouthing 'stay close', the Reploid nodding after a moment. "Right." She acknowledged as she headed off, Lelouch turning his cellphone's flashlight on and sweeping it over more boxes as he continued to look for clues as to where the records had gone.

Rolo frowned as he carefully checked his knife, Clara standing just behind him. "Remember, no Geass, not until we're sure that Reploid is gone." He told her.

"Got it." She acknowledged as she pulled her .22 caliber pistol out of the concealed holster under her shirt.

Rolo nodded and strode out of cover.

* * *

Lelouch smirked and drew his pistol discreetly as he turned to face Rolo when the latter walked up. It wasn't the same 1911 coilpistol taken from Viletta that he'd carried throughout the entire First Rebellion and certainly didn't have the same metaphorical weight to it that said gun had, having been used to kill Clovis and put Euphemia into a coma among other things, but it was still a gun all the same. "Hello, _Rolo_." Lelouch greeted sardonically.

"I see, you're aware of my identity." The boy replied as he mentally prepped himself for combat. "I'm sure you're aware of what has to happen now."

"Indeed. But do you have the stomach for it?" Lelouch questioned.

Rolo stiffened briefly, giving away his hesitation.

"Ah, so you _don't_, why's that, because I was your doting big brother during my identity as Lelouch Lamperouge?" Lelouch asked him as he turned around and pointed his sidearm at Rolo's head. "Surely you can't kill me now?"

* * *

From her vantage point, Clara frowned, wondering what Lelouch's game was before she felt a cold, firm hand on her shoulder and then a cloth was stuffed over her mouth and nose.

She smelt ether and everything went dark not long after.

* * *

Rolo huffed as he tightened his grip on the combat knife he held. "You're mistaken, the mission is all that matters to me."

"And what _is_ your mission?" Lelouch asked him smugly.

"To capture Nemo at any cost."

"And if you kill me, Nemo will assume that she's still being hunted and go deeper into cover, where you cannot find her. And even should you somehow manage to catch her, you'd find yourself suddenly without a purpose." Lelouch countered.

"My purpose is the mission."

"And what an _empty_ purpose that is." Lelouch scoffed derisively. "Eventually one mission _will_ go wrong, and it could very well mean the end of your life. An ending where you'll be deemed a failure and forgotten by Britannia."

Rolo froze, a sort of glazed look in his eyes.

Lelouch resisted the urge to smirk, he had him. "Yes, that's right. A child assassin is by nature _expendable_, you know only killing so it is of little consequence should you be lost as another could be easily groomed to take your place. Nor are you supposed to think too hard about your lot in life." Lelouch chuckled as he lowered his pistol. "Do you wish to die a mere pawn? Or do you wish to have something to call your own for once?"

Rolo stood there indecisively. "And what makes you any different?" He asked.

Lelouch raised an eyebrow and made his next offer. "The fact that I can offer you the one thing you've _truly _sought. A place to _belong_. Not just for your skills, but as a human being."

"And what's stopping me from just using my Geass and killing you should I decide against it?" Rolo pointed out.

Lelouch simply smirked, a smug grin that unnerved Rolo greatly.

There was a metallic clank from behind him.

Rolo, already figuring who it was, turned to see C2 aiming her buster directly at him, an unconscious and tied up Clara behind her, the girl's weapons placed a safe distance away.

"_That_." Lelouch informed him smugly as Rolo's face fell. "After all, Geass doesn't work on Reploids."

"Fine… We'll come along... But give me time to convince Clara, she's the closest thing I have to a friend…" The boy managed, defeated.

His mission was a complete failure.

"_All conditions have been met, moving to the next phase of the operation."_ Lelouch thought, self-assured in his victory. "C2, eliminate the rest of the kill team. We have no need for them. But do it _discreetly_._"_ He ordered. "After that, we'll seize the surveillance detachments."

The Reploid nodded before she turned and began to walk off.

Though Lelouch seemed to not be paying much attention to her, likely due to familiarity, Rolo would _never_ forget the cold, unfocused, empty, and dull look in her eyes that came almost as quickly as if a lightswitch had been flipped.

A look which rendered _him_ stiff and senseless in fright.

It was the look of someone who'd grown used to killing and death, someone who'd killed so much that causing the death of another had become _routine_. That witnessing death had become _routine_.

Was that what his own eyes looked like when he was prepared to kill?

Because those eyes _terrified_ him, especially when they were on someone who could slaughter humans like they were nothing more than _ants_.

And deep down, Rolo now feared that one day, those eyes would be the _last_ thing he'd ever see.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**UFNNS **_**Isaribi**_**, South China Sea en-route to Area 11.**

Ohgi frowned as he hovered over the sonar operator's shoulder. "You're certain we're being tailed?" He quietly asked the Reploid, whom nodded and turned to look up at him.

"Contact is quiet, but huge. Possibly Soviet given their focus on submarines. Fast too, which means it's not Diesel-Electric or Sakuradite battery powered. They want us to know they're following us otherwise we wouldn't have picked them up this easily." She said.

"Would explain that carrier group we saw near Malaysia, them being this far from Vladivostok means they're supporting its operations." Ohgi noted. "What ship was that group centered around anyways?"

"Dunno, sonar signature and profile weren't in our recognition books, which means it's brand spanking new. Big sucker too, had a few Kalinkas with those Soviet air-lift wings on them sitting on the deck alongside the planes and VTOLs from what the ESM buoy guys tell me." She shrugged as she turned back to her task at hand. "Unknown is changing course by three degrees, they're continuing to shadow… Damn, lost them in the thermal layer." She hissed.

Ohgi glanced behind him nervously, as if attempting to stare through the sub itself and millions of gallons of water to find their pursuer. "I knew we should've maintained formation with the _Anko_…" He muttered softly.

"Would've slowed us down significantly sir, anyways it seems likely they're done toying with us, since we still haven't picked up torpedo tracks incoming it's gotta be either Soviet or Chinese." She told him.

"How can you tell?"

"You think our girl's sonar signature isn't one of the most distinctive things in the damn ocean? If the Brits had found us we'd have had a salvo of torpedoes flying right up our ass in no time." She chuckled darkly. "We can run this boat as silent as we want, but the moment someone gets a good read on us, we're done for. There's no mistaking the sound this tub makes given the way water flows over her due to the hull design."

Ohgi blinked, he'd always found sailors a bit jarring due to him being a civilian turned insurgent turned military officer, but submariners were an entirely different kind of animal owing to the tense, heart-pounding nature of the dangers their vessels faced.

Still, the revelation of the _Isaribi's_ Achilles heel was disturbing. Though he doubted Kyoto had thought much of the issue at the time, probably seeking performance over stealth, which was part of the reason they'd gotten this far so fast, the vessel's surfaced top speed being forty knots due to her unique but absurdly expensive hull design. "Alright, keep an ear out for trouble. The Britannians have been storing Merchant Marine Portman Is aboard their freighters as organic ASW escorts ever since the war with the EU began, so I don't want us getting sunk because we pass a bit too close and get picked up."

"Don't need to tell me my job sir." She replied candidly as Ohgi nodded and stepped away.

He honestly hated being aboard a submarine, even Zero was utterly reliant on the crew to know what they were doing to avoid certain death, be it either from accidentally passing their crush depth, running aground and being unable to dislodge the submarine due to further damage, accidentally colliding with another vessel or, of course, enemy action.

"_I hope this plan works… Because otherwise… We're at Britannia's mercy…"_ He noted grimly as he left the bridge, leaving the crew and captain to their work.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**OSI Monitoring Annex, Ashford Academy, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

One of the OSI staffers stretched a bit as he adjusted his position at his workstation, it had been a long day and honestly, he just wanted to get some sleep.

Glancing up at the monitor he spotted Rolo and Clara returning. ["Nebiros and Marchocias requesting entry permission."] Rolo said calmly into the mic at the door.

"Roger, just give us a second… There we go. You're clear." He said as he entered the key into the door, the two walking in without incident.

There was a sound of surprise from one of the men behind him shortly afterwards. The staffer turning in his chair to look. "Hey, what's the big-"

The young black-haired man with the black armored Reploid standing beside him gazed into his eyes and said two words.

"Obey me."

Something in the staffer's mind clicked just as he realized _who_ he was looking at, and he did so without question. "Understood."

"Good, continue monitoring, act like nothing unusual has happened and scrub all records from the last twenty while pretending it's system error, that goes for the rest of you as well. Otherwise just ignore us until I tell you otherwise." The young man ordered.

"Yes, My Lord." The OSI operatives declared in unison.

Lelouch grinned ruefully. _"Condition fulfilled, onto the next objective."_

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**UFNNS **_**Anko**_**, Pacific Ocean en-route to Area 11.**

Shirley grumbled as Kallen helped her up off the boxing mat. "Geez Shirley, you're really going all out today but still... I'm no Suzaku and even I have more upper body strength than you. You really need to work on strength training more." The redhead pointed out.

"I just…" The ginger sighed. "I don't want to be a burden to Zero y'know?" She said, almost slipping into saying 'Lulu' but managing to catch herself in time. "It's why I started piloting."

"And you're doing great with that, you're one of our top aces so far."

"Still, I nearly _died_ back at the raid on the Britannian air flotilla."

"Then stay close to me." Kallen told her. "Our units are meant to complement eachother even if that was the result of Rakshata screwing up with the Mark II Kai and making its weapon ranged rather than close quarters. The Guren's upgrade gives it range with the wave surger, but it drains way too much energy to use more than a few times per sortie." She pointed out. "But together, the two of us would be almost unstoppable, especially with Zero Squad and the Swords backing us up."

"I guess so… It's just… I dunno, I'm not as strong as you are, or as good of a pilot."

"Like I said, you're one of our top aces Shirley." Kallen pointed out. "And you've been getting better, so stop putting yourself down. You've improved a lot since you were that helpless damsel in distress who ended up working logistics for us."

Shirley smiled softly at her. "Yeah, I guess so." She replied as Kallen took another fighting stance and raised her fists.

"Best six out of seven?" The redhead prodded jokingly.

Shirley rolled her eyes and stood up, taking her own stance. "C2's not here to steal your bra again, so you don't get to use that as an excuse when I beat you."

Kallen began sputtering in reply, face flushed red.

Shirley took that opening to deliver a right hook directly into her face.

"Fgah! Shirley!"

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMLS **_**Batomys,**_** Paris, Britannian Occupied France.**

Prince Maximillian va Britannia frowned as he watched the bitter stalemate at Verdun continue to devolve further into trench warfare over the STRATNET, a blithe waste of lives by both sides for little tactical or strategic gain.

It was starting to become like this all along the front, with only the troops in Italy whose landings had been pioneered by Sir Kururugi earlier this year before his sudden transfer back to Pendragon at Liath's behest making any headway, at least until the Italians managed to stabilize at the newly formed Gothic line.

However, Sir Bradley was already making moves to open another front, which would force the Europans to divert massive amounts of their reserve troops away from the front. Whether or not it'd be successful was in the Navy's ballpark now.

On the very relevant subject of fortifications, the Germans had established the pan-Europan Siegfried line directly opposite the French Maginot line as a means to prevent Britannian troops from coming deeper into the continent by land routes, the polar opposite of the Soviet focused Maginot, which was intended to allow France to hold out as a Bastion of Europa…

At the cost of the rest of the continent.

This was entirely in response to the Maginot's construction as well and tied directly into old rivalries between France and Germany.

Naturally when he and Schneizel had overrun much of Western Europa quicker than the EU expected, Britannia had captured most of the Maginot intact.

Which led to their current predicament, the two opposing fortification lines had effectively prevented all further movement between the two by forming a lethal no-man's land that not even Seventh Gen Knightmares and airships could penetrate without incurring heavy losses.

"_Ironic, our grand return to mainland Europa stalls in the same area where our we and our allies tried to hold off the French and their own Entente during the Napoleonic Wars."_ Maximillian thought with some mirth.

A carefully concealed fact was that he, like Lelouch and Marrybell, detested the current state of Britannian affairs. A result of the Royal train he, his mother, and many of their servants were riding aboard being bombed and thus derailed by unknown groups from inside Britannia not long before the deaths of Empress Marianne and most of the mel Britannia line of the Imperial Family.

Maximillian survived by sheer luck, having rushed to an observation coach to witness a large flock of passenger pigeons take off when the bomb detonated.

So it came as no surprise to him that his younger siblings decided to be impulsive and act out against the Emperor when their own families suffered losses. Though Lelouch had certainly been more reasonable than Marrybell, whom had outright tried to _assassinate_ their father in a fit of anger.

A shame about his fate, as apparently he'd sacrificed himself to get Nunnally to safety during the Invasion of Japan.

On the topic of Marrybell, that she had been reinstated into the line two years ago, albeit below even Nunnally for a variety of reasons. Anyone else would've been executed on the spot, yet Marrybell had been allowed to _live_. Albeit in exile in one of the Areas.

Why she was allowed to return to the fold he did not know. Though ultimately it was of little consequence outside his endgame against Schneizel, to wait until his brother was committed before making a move against him _and_ the Emperor at their lowest point. If Marrybell sided with him, so be it. If she sided against him, so be it.

Either way he had no intention of losing.

Once he'd defeated his adversaries he would take the people responsible for perpetuating Britannia's increasingly corrupt system of Social Darwinism and put them before the guillotine their ancestors had fled from over a century ago.

That said… He would need a much larger powerbase to do so, more people and resources from whom he could call upon than Schneizel. The danger was that if his brother or Liath ever discovered what he was up to, his life was forfeit.

He had no doubt the Emperor knew and was waiting for both him and Schneizel to begin their endgames.

There was _one_ option available to him however.

But a deal with a **_demon_ **always came with a price to pay.

"_Still, perhaps Zero would be interested in what I have to offer…"_ He mused as he stood up and headed off to his quarters, his Knight, Selvaria Bles, and her armsman, a former combat engineer by the name of Johann Eisen, glancing over at him along with several officers.

"Your Highness?"

"I'm simply going to go collect my thoughts and brainstorm possible strategies to bypass the current roadblock we've hit. If anything occurs do not hesitate to inform me."

The tall white-haired woman crossed her arm over her chest in a Britannian salute. "As you wish, Your Highness."

Maximillian smiled softly and strode out of the bridge.

* * *

**June 20, 2019 ATB.**

**Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, Indian Ocean.**

Lights illuminated Anderson Air Force Base as swing-wing B-58 Hustler strategic bombers and the distinctive eight-engined profiles of B-52 Superfortresses were towed towards ammunition loading areas by airtugs, squadrons of FB-14 Strike Fangs, F-14 Skyfangs, B-57 Draco light bombers, KC-135 Stratotankers and F-15 Spitefuls readying for combat ops at their own staging points. Specialized mechaniloids aiding human and Reploid personnel in loading ammo and fuel aboard aircraft.

Their takeoffs would be timed to match the schedule of four reinforced Britannian carrier groups and two aviation surface action groups steaming towards India with the permission of the Chinese Federation's government.

Their orders, to launch airstrikes against Black Knights facilities in Chennai and Mumbai, facilities which were technically _illegally_ present on 'Chinese' soil.

This operation had been on the contingency plans for quite some time, having been planned out by Cornelia, Colonel and several staff officers from the Royal Britannian Navy and Royal Britannian Air Force since OSI had discovered the extent of the Black Knights presence in India.

Bombs and missiles, all standoff weapons, were loaded aboard aircraft by the dozens, many boasting derogatory messages aimed towards the Black Knights scrawled on them in the time-honored tradition of nearly every air service that has ever existed.

H-Hour was set for 1200 hours local time on the 21st of June.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**C2/Marino's safehouse, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

C2 groaned as she clutched Cheese-Kun close to her, trying to get some diagnostic rest in even as she felt the creeping pressure of her intel gathering ops bearing down on her.

That she'd added more blood to that which already _drenched_ her hands was of little comfort either.

A gentle prod woke her. "Mmmrgh… Marino…"

"Wake up, we've got orders from Zero."

C2 sighed and slipped out of bed, having made a habit to use that rather than a diagnostic rack over the course of the last year. "What is it?"

"Dunno, just said he wants us to be ready to scout out the Ghettos with him, says he wants to meet someone there." The buxom Reploid replied with a shrug.

"Well, makes sense." C2 grumbled as she rubbed an eye.

"I'll go first, if you want to get a nice view that is." Marino teased.

C2 rolled her eyes. "Blow me." She retorted, still in a bad mood from last night.

Marino smirked. "If you insist."

The verdant-haired Reploid sighed in exasperation. "Damnit, you're not supposed to go with it."

"I'll go with whatever I want my dear C2." She chuckled as she headed towards the door, C2 grabbing her phone and following shortly thereafter once she made sure her 'civilian' garb was presentable.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Suzaku and Gino sparred in the courtyard of the garden atop the Bureau as a bored Anya watched them from nearby, taking pictures with her handheld in the likely event she forgot again.

Finally, the two Rounds ceased their session, Suzaku bowing to Gino out of habit instilled into him by Todoh.

"So we gonna pick up from here later Suzaku?" Gino inquired as he leaned against a nearby marble column.

"Maybe, it depends on whether or not we choose nightmares next time." The Knight of Seven answered.

"Interesting." Anya's bored voice murmured.

"What's interesting Anya?" Gino asked as he turned and looked over at her.

The pink-haired Knight of Six simply raised her arm and pointed out into the sky.

The other two Rounds followed the line that was 'drawn' by her finger and spotted seven airships approaching the Bureau, clad in the red, white and gold of the Glinda Knights.

Three _Grandberry_-class Destroyer Leaders, _one Logres_-class Cruiser, a replenishment ship and two _Deira_-class transports.

"The Glinda Knights?" Suzaku murmured, narrowing his eyes. "What's Princess Marrybell doing here?"

Gino shrugged. "My question is where did that _Logres _come from? I didn't think they had any earmarked for the Glindas, just some _Deira_-class transports for their logistics."

"I think that used to be General Upson's personal cruiser." Anya noted in her typical detached manner.

"I guess it's not a big surprise she'd have seized that following his execution, she lost a lot of Knightmares and more than a few pilots to that Shinkiro thing Zero was piloting due to his incompetence." Gino said with a shrug of his shoulders.

Suzaku hadn't relaxed yet. Still trying to figure out why Marrybell was here. _"Did she come on her own or did Liath send her…?"_ He wondered as the airships began to descend towards O'Hare field, which had been heavily expanded to accept dozens of airships if needed, an expansion coinciding with the 'reclamation' of the entire Saitama Ghetto and more than half of Shinjuku.

Still, Suzaku knew exactly what this was about in the end. _"Lelouch… You're in Area 11 again, aren't you? There's no other reason Marrybell would be sent."_ He thought to himself as Gino tapped him on the shoulder.

"Yo, Suzaku!"

The Knight of Seven snapped out of his thoughts and glanced over at the Knight of Three. "Huh?"

"C'mon, we're required by protocol to go greet her, you wanna take a VTOL or the Lancelot over?"

"Gino, Lloyd would freak out if I used the Lancelot as my personal shuttle. Besides it's best to keep it in fighting shape in case something happens."

Gino shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself, but Anya's already halfway to the Mordred." He said as he thumbed over his shoulder at the spot where the Knight of Six had been.

Suzaku groaned in exasperation. If there was anyone in the rounds who was more _unintentionally _socially awkward than Gino, it was Anya.

_Everyone_ knew Luciano Bradley was a psychopath anyways, the only reason Liath hadn't killed him outright for his 'off-duty' crimes was because he was too useful to the crown to get rid of just yet.

"Well, we might as well take our units then. 'Lest we make Anya look bad." Suzaku finally conceded.

Gino gently tapped his shoulder and then rushed off. "Race you there!"

Suzaku shook his head. "Gino, you really shouldn't have done that…" He chuckled before heading off after him, deciding to let the other Knight get a head start out of fairness.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Shinjuku Ghetto, Area 11.**

Zero, C2, and Marino strode through the shattered wreckage in the Ghetto en-route to the coordinates Sayoko had provided, glancing about at the few people out and about, most of whom stared at the trio in mute shock, many not believing that Zero was truly present.

C2 watched a few idlers warily, looking for possible informants as she sidestepped around a wrecked M48 Patton, the tank's 90mm linear gun torn clean out of its mounting, likely by a Mechaniloid of some kind, whether in combat or by salvage teams was unknown. Something had also ripped open the steel that previously encased the spaced composite armor on its turret front, revealing structural details that were previously _highly_ classified. Or at least it would've had the Britannians not ripped everything that could be salvaged out afterwards. "This is how it's been since the Rebellion?"

"Pretty much." Marino replied. "The Brits weren't particularly kind to the locals afterwards to say the least. And the Uprising practically led to most of the remaining Japanese Reploids fleeing the urban areas altogether to avoid being lynched by _both_ sides."

C2 remained silent at that.

="Disgusting."= Zero scoffed as he stepped past a crashed Inugami attack helicopter that had been stripped bare by looters, faded Black Knights and JGSDF markings still visible on part of its remaining external plating. ="Nobody should be fearful for their life over _who_ they are."=

Lelouch clenched his fist, remembering how he watched Suzaku get treated by Clovis's guardsmen, the Ashford Student 'Self Defense Force', and generally many Britannians excluding Nunnally, the Student Council, or Euphemia. Or those who were just plain indifferent.

This was also to say nothing of how C2 told him about how Kallen and her birth mother were treated by Portia Stadtfeld and the other maids at the Stadtfeld estate in the Settlement, with his ace getting the better end of that deal as Andrew Stadtfeld would've certainly put his foot down if he found out anything had happened to his daughter.

Then on the opposite end of the spectrum there was Nina's near miss with rape at the hands of a group of ex-Yakuza thugs in the Ghettos when she was younger that had contributed to her xenophobia, ironically being saved by _Tamaki _of all people.

Tamaki may have been a blithering idiot, but he was at least a principled one.

"Welcome to reality. Population, everyone on this shithole planet." C2 muttered sardonically as she followed.

="You could be less of a cynical ass sometimes."= He pointed out.

"But that's part of my charm." C2 snarked back at him.

"Just hurry up you two, we need to get out of here before the Britannians discover we're in the area and decide to go for 'Shinjuku 2: Electromagnetic Boogaloo' before the Viceroy finds out what they're up to." Marino pointed out as she hopped over the arm of a wrecked Burai that laid entangled with a Knightpolice Glasgow.

C2 and Zero exchanged a dubious glance, the former shrugging at him before they picked up the pace.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**O'Hare field, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Suzaku rode the Lancelot's boarding line down and strode over to where Marrybell was inspecting the Glinda Knights, their red and gold Knightmares gleaming in the afternoon sun.

"Your Highness." He addressed firmly but respectfully.

"Sir Kururugi." Marrybell replied in an identical manner. "What brings the Knights of the Round here?"

Suzaku raised an eyebrow. "I could ask the head of the Glinda Knights the same thing." He replied as the Mordred and Tristain landed nearby. "I didn't hear anything about your being transferred here."

"It was another of Liath's spur of the moment orders, we're just mobile enough that we can actually comply on such short notice." She admitted as the Lancelot High Grail rolled up, Marrybell's Knight, Oldrin Zevon, standing on its opened cockpit seat and trying her hardest not to stare at her Princess.

Suzaku gave her a brief glance. It was very much rumored that Marrybell and Oldrin were lovers, not unlike Schneizel and his aide Kanon. Though even if it was true it would have little bearing on how they were viewed, homosexuality in modern Britannia was given nary a second thought under the policies and beliefs of Social Darwinism.

The only exception was that Royals who were homosexual were effectively disqualified from the line of succession owing to the perception that they would be unable contribute to future generations of the Imperial Family should they ascend, which might help explain why Marrybell was ranked lower than _Nunnally_ on it even though the latter was blind and crippled.

And it also indicated Schneizel wasn't purely homosexual at the least, otherwise his standing for the coming games of succession would've taken a _massive_ hit.

He frowned; contrary to popular opinion in other countries, Britannia actually had many progressive policies despite its authoritarian nature. Ecologically friendly energy sources were widely available, vehicles were largely electrically driven outside military machinery, ships, and aircraft, former military enjoyed immense healthcare benefits and a strong and robust Veterans' Affairs system, Britannian citizens rarely suffered discrimination among their peers for their gender, sexual identity and preference, or skin color, unless they happened to look too much like a number for the latter.

Or there was a gap in social classes involved... Which brought up the second most blatant of the downsides of Britannian culture, policies, and society.

The lengths the nobles went to ensure the commoners remained suppressed was at times quite extreme as their population ballooned well beyond that of the nobility. With the numbers and honoraries held even _lower_ on the scale due to them being the _conquered_ rather than the _conquerors_.

And on that subject, Suzaku was determined to at least lessen the plight of the Japanese under this system, and maybe reform it once he had the support… But to do so he had to become the Knight of One.

He wasn't nearly stupid enough to try and become Executor, Liath would put him in the ground in a _heartbeat _if she had so much of an inkling of that being his goal.

That she was apparently immortal according to the Emperor meant that goal was futile anyways, leaving only the post of Knight of One open to him.

And though now he had his nagging doubts, Suzaku was too prideful to give up and let Lelouch win by default, even if taking Bismarck Waldstein down would be the toughest challenge of his life so far.

"You're here because of Zero, aren't you?" Suzaku observed after noticing her stare at him funny because he'd spaced out for a bit on his mental tirade. It wasn't hard to understand _why_ she'd come. Almost all of the supposed 'resistance groups' that remained in Area 11 were basically small bands of outmatched dimwits who sometimes had maybe _two_ guns to share between eight people at the worst.

Many of them couldn't even _drive_, let alone operate a Knightmare or make a functioning bomb.

In short, target practice barely even worthy of the attention of a single _grunt_ from the Glinda Knights.

Even Lelouch would've found it nearly impossible to begin a rebellion with them. He would've probably been more inclined to try and bring down the Empire from within by hiding his identity and building up rapport from disgruntled police, military personnel, and civil servants and civilians in that case, taking any Japanese who'd come with him in the process.

"We have reason to believe he's in Area 11." Marrybell admitted candidly. "Therefore, my Glinda Knights and I will thus flush him out and bring him to justice before he can incite the Elevens into another revolt." She put plainly.

"And what will you do when you've done that?" He asked warily. Marrybell was not known for overly embellished or complex plans, her objectives amounting to 'find the enemy and wipe them out' in short, with the methods varying depending on local conditions.

It worked quite well to the surprise of many, as it made her troops tactically flexible in ways even the Black Knights weren't by stressing low level initiative.

She pulled out a seemingly innocuous M1911 coilpistol and glanced at it. "I'll unmask him before the world before shooting him with the same gun he used to kill Clovis and cripple Euphemia." She said plainly, Suzaku's managing to hold back his surprise that Marrybell even managed to get her hands on the weapon, which he'd confiscated off Lelouch at Kamine Island.

Further adding to the confusion was that Suzaku knew Marrybell had little love for the Emperor, having outright tried to assassinate her father nine years ago following the deaths of her mother and sister before being promptly curb-stomped, and quite literally as well, by Liath as the latter's debut before the Emperor decided to exile her from the Imperial Family as punishment.

She'd obviously been reinstated, but for reasons that nobody other than Liath or the Emperor knew.

"I see…" Suzaku replied hesitantly as a group of Vincent Glindas rolled past them, alongside several red and gold M113s, M50 Ontos SPGs, M41 LTs and Cadillac Armored cars armed with both 25mm autocannons and 90mm linear guns. "Just be careful, the Prime Minister will be arriving in about a month for negotiations with the Chinese Foreign Minister at their consulate. This is a delicate time and the appearance of the Glinda Knights could cast doubts on our ability to control Area 11."

Marrybell gave him a glare. "I'm aware of that, which is why my troops will be on standby rather than patrolling the streets. We can simply explain it away as a precaution following Zero's attack on the air flotilla that transported the Viceroy here."

He nodded. "Very well then, I'll be heading back to the Bureau. As a request, once you're done getting your troops quartered you should come speak to the Viceroy." Suzaku's tone quickly became less formal. "Nunnally doesn't have much in the way of friends here outside myself…" He said softly.

Marrybell blinked but nodded back. "Very well then, I'll have Oldrin accompany me."

Suzaku nodded at her and strode back to the Lancelot, stopping briefly before getting on the boarding line to think.

_"What _is_ Lelouch doing here...?"_ He thought worriedly.

It was _far_ too soon for him to try and push his luck with another full scale attack, so what was the game then?

* * *

**Shinjuku Ghetto, Area 11.**

Zero, C2, and Marino stepped up to the doors of the warehouse they were supposed to meet their contact in.

"This the place?" C2 mumbled as she glanced around warily.

="Of course."=

The area was too damn quiet for her liking, either a symptom of the repression placed on the Ghettos after the Black Rebellion and Maverick Uprising.

Or a deliberate result of their contact's desire for discretion.

Both were equally disquieting.

Zero opened the double doors and strode inside, Marino and C2 flanking him.

The doors promptly slammed shut behind them and they were met by two dozen raised guns and the multi-use weapon arm of what appeared to be a _white_ Guren type.

"_Shit!_" C2 hissed as she looked around, Marino tensing up as well.

They were trapped like rats.

And yet...

Lelouch didn't even seem all that worried about it.

* * *

**AN: And that's Chapter Nine.**

**Took a bit longer than I'd planned, though I'm currently working out another project right now and am taking some general downtime still so eh.**


	10. Turn 10: Placing Dominos

**AN: Chapter 10 here we go. And before we begin, I have a fitting quote to present.  
**

**'Yo buddy, still alive?'-Solo Wing Pixy.**

**Apologies for the long and stuttered wait by the way, got a bit invested in something else and kept putting this off, plus I had classes further eating away my attention until a few weeks ago and only recently began actually working on chapter 13 again.**

**Speaking of which, if Judeota is still around, I forgot to mention something. Your reviews regarding the issues you had with canon Nunnally inspired me to make her a bit more...**

**Qualified for her position for the lack of a better term. Less Naïve and someone who understands the nature of the world better. She's still an idealist but she's also not willingly blind for the lack of a better term.**

**Being in the viper's den of the Imperial Court once more is likely a heavy impetuous for one to grow up.**

**Anyways in hindsight what's actually aggravating me about the Re; Movie is that Nunnally is pretty much the same she was in R2 despite it having been _two years_ post scriptum for R2 so she's now the same age Lelouch was when R1 began.**

**Making her _Seventeen_, nearly an adult. If anything she should look a _bit_ more like Marianne due to that.**

**And yet she still looks and sounds like she was at fourteen and fifteen designwise, as if puberty didn't happen. I can understand keeping the character recognizable but for fuck's sake Sunrise.**

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Shinjuku Ghetto, Area 11.**

C2 hissed as she glanced about at the men and women aiming guns at them, trying to ID a possible leader but finding none, nor did she find a way to escape that gave Lelouch a decent chance of survival.

She resisted the urge to just break out her weapons, knowing it would condemn Lelouch and possibly Marino as well to death.

"_Damn… Is this a setup?"_

There was a whistle and the haphazardly geared gunmen lowered their weapons as the hatch on the back of the white Guren type, the Byakuen C2 belatedly realized, opened up.

An intense looking young Britannian man stood up from the motorcycle style 'seat', green eyes sizing them up.

"So, you must be Zero." He stated.

="Orpheus Zevon, or should I just call you Oz? I take it that this is part of what remains of Peace Mark after the Mavericks you hired turned on you from the inside."= Zero replied. ="Then it appears you have little choice but to join the Black Knights at this juncture."=

If Orpheus was aggravated in any way by Zero's words, he didn't show it. "I find your arrogance about the situation conceited, Zero, if I so wished I could've simply killed you before you stepped foot in here." He pointed out.

="Unless you can guarantee you get C2, I find such threats… Optimistic to say the least…"= The masked man replied candidly. ="Even your Byakuen wouldn't stand much of a chance at this range if she decides to fully cut loose."= He warned.

C2 glanced around and grit her teeth, she knew it was just posturing but if a shootout started she'd probably end up slaughtering these people _after_ they gunned down Lelouch.

She also knew that if Oz was planning to kill them, he'd do so without hesitation if that was his contract despite Zero being the only person to head an effective resistance of _any _kind against Britannia, the young man's morality was that skewed.

="So, the real question is… Are you here to meet with me."= Zero let the pause hang in the air. ="Or to _kill _me?"= He stated.

Oz's eyes narrowed as his people held tense fingers above their triggers, Marino and C2 glancing around nervously.

"No, we're here to join you… Peace Mark is dead. We're among all that remains of its combat personnel as far as we know" He muttered before riding the Byakuen's boarding line down and walking over to Zero.

Lelouch smirked behind his mask before extending his hand. ="Than the matter of negotiations should be a simple one."= He said calmly.

Oz let the barest hint of a grin grace his own features before taking Zero's hand and shaking it. "Agreed."

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB. (Area 11 local time)**

**The Somme, Britannian occupied France.**

Private Darren Smith, Royal Britannian Army, a young man of 18 from a farming town in Wyoming, panted behind his standard issue Britannian gas mask as he took shelter in a crater while the thunder of artillery fire and the chatter of automatic weapons echoed all around him, the young man desperately trying to reach friendly lines after the mostly failed infiltration attempt against the Europan trenches.

Still, they'd completed their primary objective, he now had to bring the intel back to friendly lines.

He had to since the rest of his platoon had _died_ for it.

It'd been _hell_ ever since the lines bogged down into a stalemate at the Maginot-Siegfried line stretching practically the breadth of the French border, the now Britannian controlled Maginot side serving as their frontline.

"_Of course the Germans and the French had to get in a pissing contest after the French decided to sacrifice the rest of the continent in the event the Soviets ever seriously decided to take out this joke of a superpower. And now look what's happening."_ He thought dryly as he crawled through the mud even as shells falling short exploded around him.

Cradling his M16A1 against his chest he listened to the whizz of bullets and the rush of rockets and shells passing overhead, the sounds of the battle mixing into an incessant din that would threaten to drive even the sanest men mad.

It was a scene from over a century ago, played out with modern weapons on a scale even greater than the trench battles of the Napoleonic Wars.

Artillery was joined by the shriek of jets launching airstrikes, the howl of multiple rocket launchers unleashing their warheads, and the incessant rain of surface-to-surface missile attacks. Armored vehicles were countered by ATGMs, handheld rocket launchers and recoilless anti-tank guns. Knightmares replaced horse cavalry and most armored cars alike, with a higher survival rate to boot despite their mobility offensive focus. VTOLs, drones and helicopters directed stonks upon enemy positions from distant gun, mortar, rocket and missile batteries with modern sensor arrays and datalinking. Reploids advanced under heavy fire as shock troops, armored plating shrugging off anything less than a heavy machine gun or anti-material rifle. Chainguns joined a plethora of light, medium, and heavy machine guns in suppressing infantry attacks. Anti-aircraft guns and SAMs blazed into the sky, seeking their prey among the grey clouds that hovered over the battlefield. Missile, gun, and laser based C-RAM batteries desperately tried to intercept as many incoming warheads as possible while men, women and Reploids below sought shelter in the trenches. Mechaniloid spider tanks scuttled over craters and wreckage spewing bullets, laserfire and shells at opposing forces, infantry sheltering behind their legs as they advanced.

And above all, Snipers waited patiently for their opportunity to put a round clean through the head of man or machine, the cracks of their rifles indicating a bullet that had either found its target or missed by intervention of the hands of fate.

The noise of all of it melded a symphony straight out of hell itself.

Smith felt his body tremble as a mortar shell shrieked in, landed close to his cover, and exploded.

Curling in on himself he suddenly felt heat, nothing but heat, and thought he was dead.

He realized quickly enough that he wasn't.

["Are you Private Darren Smith, 407th Infantry Battalion?"] Came the voice of a woman from over him, echoing from the external speakers of a Knightmare frame.

He looked up to see a white and blue Lancelot type machine standing over him, oddly enough it had the head of a Bors command unit but the shoulders of the more common Lionel. "Y… Yes ma'am!" He replied even as she blocked incoming Europan fire with her machine's blaze luminous.

Smoke and flames rose from a section of the Europan trenches.

["Well then you're in luck, Knight of Nine; Nonette Enneagram, here to return you and your vital intel to base!"] The woman's voice replied cheerfully before she turned and fired her Hadron Bazooka again, tearing up another portion of the EU lines and silencing their guns for the moment.

He sat there dumbfounded, what he carried was apparently important enough that a _Round_ felt it worth their time to come pick his sorry ass up.

Acting quickly before the enemy could react, the Lancelot Club, a testbed variant of the Lancelot that had initially been shelved before the Knight of Nine expressed interest in the unit's high performance despite its temperamental controls, stooped down and swept the soldier up in its free hand before darting off back to Britannian lines just as the EU troops managed to find the courage to get up and start shooting again.

* * *

Lt. General George S Patton IV, dressed in standard battle armor due to the local situation, sighed in relief as the Lancelot Club roared up to his HQ, which was arrayed _near_ a G-1 sitting by a wooded area rather than inside it, several armored vehicles and parked Canterburys providing improvised 'walls' to protect against sniper attacks while Vincent Wards, Vincent Commands, and Vincent Blazes stood guard.

He didn't put much faith in the new Blaze Luminous systems being used on Britannian land, sea, and air ships.

A dazed Private Smith was gently placed back on the ground by the Club, the cockpit of which opened up and allowed its pilot to egress, Nonette striding over to the Lt General, whom nodded at her.

Smith almost saluted but remembered that EU special forces could easily be attempting to infiltrate their lines masquerading as civilians and simply strode over and pulled the data files and papers out of his rucksack, which had survived the hell he'd went through thanks to it being armored. "Here's the intel sir."

The General frowned. "Did anyone else make it out?"

"No sir." Smith replied, earning a curse from the man.

"Then this better be goddamn worth more than the lives of thirty-five men." Patton snarled as he and Nonette began to look over the layouts of the EU forces, the Knight of Nine whistling at the variety and number of units.

"They pulled out all the stops for us didn't they? Look at all those Knightmares… And _how_ many Zilkhstani 'volunteer groups'?" She murmured to herself.

Patton frowned as he pointed at the primary massing points for the EU reinforcements on this section of the line. "Here, we hit these areas with heavy artillery and cruise missiles, and this'll break the back of the enemy, their frontline units will panic and my boys could very well smash through their lines on our next assault." He stated firmly.

"We'd need to shore up the bridgehead quickly though lest the enemy just move their defenses further back." Nonette pointed out.

Patton shook his head, "With all due respect Dame Enneagram. Without the Siegfried line backing them, they can't hope to hold our troops with further entrenchments."

"Hopefully the Europans don't see it that way." She chuckled. "Would make it easier for the Prime Minister to get them to sue for peace if we completely encircle much of their army."

"Maybe, maybe not, either way this trench bullshit is a waste of lives, both ours and theirs. And we need it over and done with ASAP so we can move on to the Ruskies and the Black Knights." Patton replied.

Nonette nodded in agreement before turning to Smith. "You go get some rest now Corporal, you've earned it."

Darren opened his mouth to acknowledge before he realized what she'd just said.

He'd gone up two full ranks, he was a Corporal now.

"Understood, Dame Enneagram." He replied before turning and heading to one of the barracks tents as Nonette and Patton turned back to the new information they'd gotten and began to draw up plans to inform the rest of the general staff.

* * *

**Shinjuku Ghetto, Area 11.**

C2 sat outside the building where Zero and Oz were negotiating the integration of this cell of Peace Mark remnants into the Black Knights, taking a sip from a can of root beer in the process while listening to a football match on a nearby radio.

Technically speaking the Europans, Australians, and Soviets called soccer that, but it really didn't matter when a third of the Earth's surface was under Britannian control with more and more miles turning 'blue' on the map with each passing day.

She didn't really care much for sports, but soda _was_ one of her vices, it was sticky, prone to gunking up her internals that were exposed to it, and generally a hassle for her self-repair to clean out afterwards. But it just tasted _so good_.

Naturally Oz and Zero chose to meet in seclusion to discuss what was occurring, leaving C2 out in the cold while Marino went off to inform Sayoko of the development. It was taking longer than she'd anticipated and she had no idea what the two were discussing.

She was taking another sip of her drink when somebody strode up to the empty bench she was sitting on and sat down next to her.

The Reploid side-eyed the trenchcoated man, noting he had a noticeable goatee, or was it a beard? Either way it was a brave or stupid soul who wasn't part of the Black Knight's upper command structure, or X for that matter, that decided to sit down next to her while she was _openly wearing her armor_.

The sunglasses they wore and their calm demeanor, combined with her inability to recognize him from the database they'd pilfered from the OSI office underneath Ashford, meant that he wasn't a spook.

"Nice weather we're having." She remarked dryly as she took another sip.

"_Nice weather we're having?! Is that really the best you, one of the two crowning results of _decades _of AI and robotics development by two of the finest in the field, can come up with as an opener!?"_ She screamed mentally.

"Indeed. A bit better than at Verdun." The man chuckled, her eyes widening in shock.

"_Verdun? This guy came all the way from Europa?!"_ She thought warily as she glanced over at him. "I see… I've heard it's a bit stormy there, a lot of thunder." She replied, trying to keep the conversation casual.

To an outside observer she probably looked like an absolute idiot.

"Yes, there's a bit of a thunderstorm there. Maybe it will go on into the black night." The man chuckled.

C2 gave him a look. "Uh…"

The man began to guffaw before looking over at her. "My apologies, I just wanted to do something like a secret agent using code phrases while I was on this mission."

"Mission?" She asked warily.

"Yes, I was sent to establish contact with Zero, my… Benefactor will attempt direct communication later." The man confirmed for her as he stood up. "Just tell Zero that the Steel Wolf was looking for him. I'm fairly certain he'll know what I mean."

C2 froze as the man walked away, the 'Steel Wolf', Radi Jaeger, one of Britannia's most legendary tank commanders with over a dozen Knightmare kills to his name, on _top _of hostile tanks and other armored vehicles. There was a well-traveled story that he'd turned down an incessant stream of promotions to remain in command of his tank, the customized T-57E5 Heavy MBT named 'Lupus'.

For him to be looking for Zero meant that his benefactor, Maximillian va Britannia, had plans for the throne.

And those might very well align with Lelouch's own designs for the future of Britannia once the scum controlling it had been dealt with.

"I'll be sure to let him know…" She replied.

"That's good to hear, I should be going now, as intimidating as I might be, it's not safe in the Ghettos for lone Britannians to be walking around." He informed her as he walked off. "Someone like you on the other hand should have little issue scaring off the locals though."

And with that he was gone, leaving C2 to mull over what this meant for the Rebellion.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, Indian Ocean.**

["All assigned aircraft for Operation Knightslayer I are to commence sequential takeoff. I repeat, all assigned aircraft for Operation Knightslayer I are to commence sequential takeoff."] The base's PA blared as Britannian fighter-bombers, fighters, strategic and medium bombers, and support aircraft roared into the sky from the base's twin runways, with many more backed up along the taxiways, with bombers and support aircraft grouped in ones and twos depending on their size while the fighters were moving in flights of four towards the runways.

It was a classic mass launch scenario, with countless personnel moving like clockwork to ensure everything went smoothly.

With any luck, the Black Knights would have no idea what was about to hit them until missiles began raining down on their heads.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Tokyo Settlement Highways, Area 11.**

"You're certain about this?" Lelouch asked C2 as she reclined in the seat of the taxi they were taking; Marino having taken a more discreet path back at Zero's request.

C2 glanced back at the Geassed cabbie driving them before looking at Lelouch. "Undoubtedly, it fits with the profile, you, Marrybell, Maximillian, the three of you working in concert would easily be able to take the crown… The issue is convincing Marrybell you're _not_ a terrorist." She stated calmly.

Lelouch hummed to himself. In another life he'd have shot down the offer immediately, but Maximillian was the only remaining individual in the royal family who could match Schneizel in a game of wits, and admittedly he was pretentious in the extreme and not much better than _himself_ at his worst.

"I'll consider it." He finally admitted. "And regarding C.C…."

"You think she was that 501st officer you say at the festival last year?"

Lelouch nodded. "It makes too much sense, especially given her appearance, even at the time I'd assumed it was her…" He confirmed. "But I meant her warning from recently… Aside from the obvious implications about the Soviet Union facing imminent destruction, it doesn't make any sense."

"Red Knight is about the only thing I can figure out a meaning for, with context to us it's either Kallen or Zero, probably the latter considering his parts vanished before they could be recovered by the Hunters…" C2 uttered grimly.

X was going to _hate_ having to possibly anticipate that, and so was Lelouch.

Zero was an _exceptionally_ powerful Reploid that C2 knew for a fact would take her and X working in absolute harmonious concert to even have a _shot_ at taking down if he went all-out.

Him being an open threat to them was a terrifying thought.

"I know the first warning also meant something related to Freyja, but why a Norse goddess would be involved in any of this is beyond me…"

There was a brief thought about Nina, whom studied Norse mythology quite thoroughly despite both her scientific mind and Jewish heritage but Lelouch dismissed it.

"Maybe it's a codeword for something… Like a WMD…? She did mention 'holy fire' which implies it's an excessively powerful bomb of some kind." The Reploid offered.

"Hmm… I'll keep that in mind. What about Second Son…? Could that mean Schneizel?"

"Probably, what other notable 'second son' do you know of?" She asked dryly.

Lelouch shrugged. "So we've deciphered the meaning behind at least part of it… 'World's End' could mean one of several things however."

"We should probably assume a worst-case scenario for that one…" C2 pointed out.

Lelouch's expression darkened. "Agreed, a phrase like 'world's end' wouldn't be used for the mere end of the existing world order, not in a warning like that. Any other breakthroughs on your end?"

"The warning about 'the Titan of the Third act', that sounds… Oddly familiar to me… I'll have to look in my 'mother's' old files about anything titanic from 20XX, as it probably means it's something bigger than a Knightmare or even that Arminius Giga Knightmare thing you fought back during the whole Tokyo fiasco two years ago."

"Ugh, don't remind me… Dealing with Leaf Boy again tore through what little of my patience I had left."

C2 gave him a catlike smirk. "Says the dumbass who didn't bother just trying to blow him out of the sky rather than blow him off."

"Who's the bigger dumbass? The dumbass, or the dumbass who calls him a dumbass?" Lelouch snarked back at her.

"Wait! _Fuck_!" She hissed as she realized what she'd just done.

"You have to admit you opened yourself up for that one."

"Touche…" She admitted begrudgingly. "So where next?"

Lelouch smiled smirked. "Driver, take us to the Chinese consulate." He ordered.

"Understood." The man replied, still under Lelouch's Geass, which prevented him from acknowledging anything he or C2 said or did that wasn't directed at him.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Nunnally smiled earnestly at Marrybell as the two princesses, alongside Oldrin Zevon, Suzaku, Gino, and Anya, sat at lunch together.

"This reminds me of the old days, when you and Euphie would come over to visit us." Nunnally said wistfully.

She knew said days were dead and gone, they'd died with their respective mothers.

And Marrybell's own little sister.

Marrybell nodded in agreement. "It does." She replied.

"I still remember when me and Euphie were arguing over which of us Lelouch would marry, not really knowing what the word meant at the time, and he ended up picking _you_ in a panic."

Marrybell chuckled at the reminder even as Oldrin gave her a sideways glance. "Yeah, Lelouch was always hapless like that when it came to girls."

"For sure." Nunnally agreed.

Even Suzaku broke out into a grin at that, some part of him wishing that things hadn't turned out the way they did.

Fukuoka was proof enough that the two of them operating in concert were capable of damn near anything, they could've changed the world with far less bloodshed than what he knew Lelouch's plan would bring upon it.

The kind of arrogance that got Euphie…

He exhaled sharply through his nose, managing to calm himself down. He'd already made significant progress with his mental health over the past year and couldn't regress, especially not in front of Nunnally.

Oldrin glanced over at Anya, hoping to change the subject after noticing Suzaku's sudden shift in expression. "Dame Alstreim, you do know that more… Modest pilot uniforms for women are available thanks to Executrix Liath's initiative correct?"

"I dunno, I like mine." Anya replied in her usual bored manner as she fiddled with her spoon. "It's sort of a sentimental thing."

"Who was even responsible for those designs?" Suzaku asked, taking the opening. "They were hardly practical and were more dangerous than anything if a pilot had to eject and make their way through hazardous terrain."

Cecile at least had used a variation of the Lancelot's pilot suit, which was apparently set to become the new standard for the women in the Britannian military's Knightmare corps owing to its roots as a proper G-suit rather than a literal _leotard_.

The men's suit required only minor changes to compensate for the increased G-forces newer Knightmares could exert on their pilots.

Both suits were also getting a helmet to enable better control of the knightmare via use of a neural scanner as well as to provide basic protection in the event of damage to the cockpit or being caught in the open as a result of ejecting, in addition to form-fitting body armor to cover the torso and parts of the arms and legs for anti-shrapnel purposes.

"I dunno." Gino cut in. "But whoever they are, they're probably living their life in fear that Liath might show up and gut them like a fish before the general public!" He chuckled.

Suzaku sighed as everyone looked at the Knight of Three weirdly, aside from Anya of course. "Gino… You've _got_ to learn how to read a room." He muttered under his breath.

"Makes me grateful we didn't bring Steiner over…" Oldrin agreed.

Nunnally simply began giggling uncontrollably at Gino's confused reactions.

The doors slid open, an Air Force officer striding up and saluting. "Sir Kururugi, Sir Weinberg, Dame Alstreim, Dame Zevon, Your Highnesses… Operation: Knightslayer I has reached H-Hour… The airstrikes are about to begin." The man informed them.

The faces of those assembled around the room became grim. "Understood, we'll be in the situation room shortly." Suzaku replied candidly.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB**

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Todoh frowned as he watched the enemy aircraft approach.

"Right on time." Diethard intoned as he narrowed his eyes.

"Do we have any Gefjun missiles available?" Todoh asked.

Most Britannian aircraft and missiles utilized inert Sakuradite wiring for their computers, making them more efficient power-wise but also rendering them vulnerable to Gefjun disturber or breaker effects.

"Unfortunately Zero expended all of them over the Pacific." Rakshata replied candidly. "Admittedly he probably brought too many to that little affair. And we're still waiting on the next shipment from the factory, sadly those things take a bit _too_ much time to produce."

"Better to have been safe than sorry I suppose." The colonel conceded, remembering the Britannians being so hot on their heels as they withdrew.

"We're scrambling fighters sir!" One of the CIC operators replied. "All air and missile defense units are reporting green across the board, AEGIS cruisers and destroyers are sortieing out now and powering up their radars and FCS."

Todoh nodded at him as he watched numerous friendly dots appear on the TACMAP.

"I've been meaning to ask Diethard you, what _is_ the reason the ATB calendar is 55 years ahead of the AD one?" Rakshata whispered idly as Todoh began issuing further directions, working with Kusukabe to coordinate the defense.

"Hardly the time for this, but if you want to know it's largely because the official line of the crown is that Alwyin I ascended the throne during Caesar's first invasion of Britain back in 55 BC, though some experts now believe that he actually ascended some forty-three years before the _second_ wave of Roman invasions in 43 AD. Of course, this naturally falls to the media and the internet to argue incessantly about. Much like whether or not the Britannian Imperial line counts certain pre-Humiliation English Royals as Imperial Regents or if Britannia really _did_ go through dozens of Emperors and Empresses over the course of a couple decades."

"Wouldn't the incorrect framing of the ATB calendar that make it so that the AD calendar is marked incorrectly then?" Rakshata proposed, deciding to leave the messier subject of the Imperial Line for another time.

"Who knows, there's enough misinformation and lies being spread around by every nation regarding history that it could be AD 2200 for all we know, even the Australians aren't all that sure about how most of the calendar dates match up and they're the most impartial party yet available."

Rakshata hummed softly. "Well, it appears the fun's about to start, so I suppose we should save the finer points and unrelated chatter for later, provided we survive that is."

Diethard nodded in agreement.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**UFN AFB Vellari, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Sirens blared as fighters taxied towards the runway, leading the group was a group of eight German-built Focke Wulf Fw 422s, the aircraft, known affectionately as the _Luftverteidigungsdiesel_, was derived from a license built version of the single seat iteration of Britannia's famous F-58 Demon fighter built for export to African Colonial states and the MEF, in addition to those anti-Britannia groups which could afford it.

That the Black Knights had enough to form at least a few squadrons for advanced training and aggressor use was telling of the rebuilding effort they underwent, one which partially emptied the Black, Grey, and Open Markets of higher end weaponry.

Not that there were many other customers capable of affording such machines mind.

The navy blue aircraft lined up on the runway, the triple arrowhead emblem of the UFN military, which had only been decided upon after Zero's return from the Pacific interception operation, painted in a brighter shade of blue outlined in white on the outside of the intakes and the outer wing panels of each aircraft.

Likewise, each tail fin boasted the aircraft's squadron emblem, perched just above white and block UFN letters on the airframe proper, a black and blue mobius strip laid over a blue globe viewed from above, with a generic fighter jet outline sweeping up and to the right through the infinity ribbon.

**MOBIUS**

**United Federation of Nations Unified Air Force**

**4th Air Division 118th Fighter Squadron**

["Mobius squadron, you are clear for takeoff."] The tower confirmed.

All eight aircraft roared into the sky in unison, taking off in two flights of four, the first lead by an aircraft numbered 118.

More fighters joined them once they reached altitude.

["Attention all squadrons from Vellari AFB, this is callsign 'Sky Eye', we'll be your AWACS support for this operation."]

Omega, Viper, Halo, and Rapier squadrons formed up around Mobius, chattering away to report which pilots were airborne.

["Our mission objective is to intercept as many Britannian aircraft as possible, they're going to be launching attacks from standoff range so watch out for enemy interceptors, let the Navy and air defense guys handle possible seaborne attacks."] Sky Eye instructed as they made their way out to sea.

["Heh, so much for Knightmares being the supposed be-all, end-all for future wars."] Viper 7 chimed in as their Italian made C.808 Fighter roared into formation.

["Can the chatter Viper 7, we've got incoming enemy air units in our sector, looks like Dracos, Barracuda IIs, and Wyrms backed by three squadrons of Sea Vixens and two squadrons of Skyfangs, more units, probably B-52s and B-58s, coming up from behind them."] Sky Eye remarked. ["All squadrons, you're clear to engage."]

Mobius 1's Fw 422 banked into a turn and then leveled out as it began to dive, Mobius 2 struggling to keep up with their wingman, both rookie pilots diving down on the enemy aircraft.

* * *

Captain Jack Bartlett of the Royal Britannian Navy Air Service had seen and heard many things, from having his voice mistaken for that of the infamous Kyoshiro Todoh, to watching an absolutely insane hatchling from one of the Wraith units at Fort Grays charge straight through a flotilla of hostile airships and manage to nail a hapless Knightmare frame with his _guns_ in the process.

_This_, this was something else. Two outdated third-gen fighters diving down ahead of his formation, with another six angling towards them on an intercept course.

Not a single missile fired yet either, and the trajectory the first two were coming in at wasn't good for a shot on them either.

He keyed up squadron comms. "Wardogs 2 through 12, watch yourselves, we've got a couple live ones here." He warned as they switched formations and grouped up in fours, one quartet angling up towards the incoming while the others remained to cover the bombers and attack planes.

**WARDOG**

**Royal Britannian Navy**

**CVW 5 108th Naval Strike Fighter Squadron**

["Copy that, lead."] Wardog 2, Blaze, murmured.

Kid was quiet but at least not an idiot like that Trigger guy over with Mage back in the RBAF.

Moron nearly got himself NJP'd over a social media post made while _engaging the Black Knights over Pendragon_.

Bartlett shook his head, he needed to focus.

The blare of his MAW was all the reminder he needed as he threw his aircraft into a snap roll and managed to barely evade an incoming missile.

It was the two aircraft that had dove ahead of them using the energy they'd gained in the dive to shoot back up while he was looking at the remainder of their squadron.

Clever bastards.

Pulling around and releasing his aircraft's underwing drop tanks, he managed to slot in behind the lead 422, which suddenly kicked on its tail and went full burn and ascended while simultaneously forcing him to bank away yet again or eat hot exhaust directly into his intakes, which would undoubtedly cause him to stall out.

He grimaced, wishing he had the fuel or energy to spare for a stunt like that. But they barely even had any Sparrows given the range restrictions, instead packing additional sidewinders in their internal bays in place of all but two of the medium range missiles.

Calls for Fox 2s and Fox 3s issued out over the radio, along with the occasional 'guns guns guns' call indicating someone was taking a potshot at a passing jet.

["This is Wardog 3, scratch one bandit!"] Alvin H. Davenport, TAC name: Chopper, chirped as he sent one of a 422 marked with a 08 on the forward fuselage spiraling out of the sky, trailing smoke and flame.

A parachute marked the enemy pilot's safe ejection.

Their wingman slotted directly in behind Chopper, spraying him with gunfire, shell casings falling from the ejection port of the outdated but still deadly gunpowder based rotary cannon.

Rounds shredded through one of his engines as he banked away.

["Shit! Sorry Heartbreak, I'm out on this one."] Chopper groaned as he began to pull away from the fight.

"Just get back safe kid. Mustang, cover Chopper while he withdraws." Bartlett ordered as he searched for the lead enemy.

["On it lead."] Mustang replied as he banked over to escort Chopper's wounded bird back to the _Kestrel_.

["Two of the bombers are gone! It was the lead ribbon that got them!"] Edge cried out in dismay.

Bartlett swore as he turned his head to see two black trails fall from the sky, parachutes dotting the air behind them indicating ejections.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mustang and Chopper continued to withdraw, at least they were safe.

"_Whoever this guy is, they're good… And he and his wingmen at least have a sense of honor and enough sense to allow a retreating opponent some respite, especially when they have more immediate issues."_ Bartlett conceded begrudgingly as he watched Blaze latch onto the enemy lead, both fighters dancing about in an attempt to shake off the tail, or Blaze's case to line up a killshot.

Rolling his fighter, he moved to engage the second 422, the enemy aircraft going evasive to try and throw off his lock.

So far it was working, even if he was stubbornly refusing to get off their tail, the growl of his sidewinders going active echoing in his ears.

"Fox 2, Fox 2." He called as he fired a pair of sidewinders, the missiles arcing towards the enemy plane, which broke hard and ejected a blossom of flares simultaneously, trashing both shots.

"Guns guns guns!" Bartlett growled, spraying the enemy aircraft with linear propelled 20mm rounds, sending smoke billowing from the aircraft as it banked hard and made a beeline for the Indian shoreline.

He let it go, it wasn't a threat anymore.

A missile shot past Bartlett and nailed Cavalier's F-11, the aircraft's canopy blowing clear off and her seat rocketing clear as she bailed from the doomed Sea Vixen, which began to break apart as it spiraled towards the ocean surface.

He frowned, that was certainly a POW case if her 'chute deployed and she didn't drown.

Still, they had a few more seconds to hold out, and then they could take down at least some of the enemy air defenses and clear the way for their missile strikes.

Another Draco went down, followed by Jive's Sea Vixen and a pair of 'Cuda IIs, he saw enough parachutes so it appeared everyone bailed safely.

The 422 with the 118 aircraft number flashed by, followed by Blaze's F-11.

Whoever was flying that thing was a natural. But there was something odd about the way they were flying, and it wasn't just the skill.

Quickly, Bartlett realized they were focusing on the bombers and attackers rather than the SEAD planes.

Clearly that would've been a greater threat to their air defenses. But who was he to know what esoteric plan the enemy had.

The remaining Wyrms, Barracuda IIs, and Dracos released their payloads after they reached the designated release point, which screamed towards the enemy base on the outskirts of Chennai and in its port. The enemy fighters breaking off as it happened.

More missiles screamed in from behind, undoubtedly from the big strategic bombers assigned to attack this specific target, enemy interceptor missiles already racing out from ahead to shoot as many down as possible.

Seconds felt like minutes as Wardog and the bombers and attackers they were escorting pulled away, their mission fulfilled.

Then came the bad news.

["This is AWACS Thunderhead, no joy, I repeat, no joy, mission was a total wash. _Something_ blocked most of our shots that got past the enemy defense grid well before impact, some kind of shield apparently. Looks like the Black Knights had a few more tricks up their sleeves than we anticipated."]

Bartlett cursed, why the hell had they even gone out there then if intel couldn't even gauge theoretical enemy capabilities?

Were OSI and the ODI this useless!?

"Alright people, pack it in and let's get back to the _Kestrel_ for debrief." He ordered ruefully as the remainder of the squadron formed back up.

* * *

**Black Knights HQ, Chennai, Militarized Zone of India.**

Rakshata hummed smugly as she watched the Britannian missiles impact the Radiant Wave Grids of the various bases with next to no effect.

"Did they _honestly_ think I _wouldn't_ adapt such a useful technology for base defense? Even a mere child could see such an advance coming from miles away." She mocked as she fiddled with her pipe.

Todoh simply let out a sigh of relief that the barrier had worked. "Send out CSAR teams and rescue craft to pick up our people and any downed Britannians, get as many medical wards as needed ready too, we're abiding by the conventions of war and we may as well let PR get some mileage out of the propaganda value of our providing humane treatment to POWs to offset Britannia's claims about us being terrorists." He ordered, glancing warily over at Diethard as he did so. "And tell all personnel that if I find out about _anyone_ mistreating or abusing or god forbid _killing_ the POWs I'll execute those responsible, including anyone abetting such acts, on the spot! We're not having another repeat of the atrocities of Tokyo on my watch!" The colonel added vehemently.

So many dead civilians... And Todoh had no doubt that the reprisals from the Britannians were even harsher, especially on those groups of moronic militiamen and women who somehow thought they'd be _allowed_ to surrender by the Britannians after what had occurred that day.

"Sir!" One of the operators acknowledged.

"Well, that went far better than expected. Though to be fair, had Rakshata's devices malfunctioned or not been up to specs, we'd probably have been flattened." Todoh remarked to the other two after exhaling deeply.

"Such are the fortunes of war." Diethard agreed, rubbing his chin.

"Mmh, knowing the Earl of Pudding he'll probably be working on a countermeasure as soon as he gets word of this development, so I suppose that it's more of a supplement than something we can totally rely on." Rakshata conceded with a shrug.

"I'd still much rather we be prepared for a strike, next time they'll bring airships and Knightmares to overwhelm us. Seaborne vessels as well" Todoh predicted grimly.

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Chinese Consulate Gates, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

C2 checked to make sure her armor was spotless as she glanced back over at Lelouch. "How're we getting in?"

He inspected the mask of Zero before shoving it back down into the bag. "Simple." He said before tossing her an ID card.

"Huh?"

"You go in ahead and inform them that Zero wishes to meet with Gao Hai about an asylum request."

She clicked her tongue. "Stooping to tricking a man with the promise of bribery so you can use your Geass on him? I'd be more disgusted, but the Eunuchs deserve far worse."

"Just get your end of the job done. I'd do it myself but then we'd have the issue of Britannia already breathing down our throats, and I'd rather be _inside_ the consulate before Suzaku shows up." He told her, well aware that C2 still had her hangups about his Geass, even if she rarely voiced them except to make snide comments such as that.

C2 shrugged and glanced out from the alleyway.

Seeing nothing she looked up, back and leg mounted thruster covers opening as she performed a boosted jump upwards.

Lelouch simply facepalmed as the roar of her boosters faded. _"She just has to show off like that. Though I suppose a rooftop entry makes more sense than coming out off the street."_

C2 dropped down at the edge of the open perimeter around the consulate and began to stride purposefully towards it.

She tuned out a couple passers by shouting in alarm for someone to call the Knightpolice or the Maverick Hunters.

The more people shouting that, the better, as most of the crowd would naturally assume someone else was going to do it.

A quirk in human psychology that she was all too happy to exploit.

_"Mindless sheep."_ She thought ruefully. _"Rosseau and Hobbes are both hacks, most humans are aren't inherently good or evil, just stupid."_

No Reploids either as far as she could tell. They _wouldn't_ have hesitated to flood the lines to report her presence once she was recognized.

As if on cue, the Chinese troops guarding the embassy swung into action. A group of Zhu-Yans and Gun-Zhans roaring up to surround her, backed by a group of BJ212 Jeeps and a few APCs derived from the Soviet BTR-60.

Briefly C2 wondered if she should use the actual Chinese names for the machines but shrugged, she didn't much care to differentiate when most outside China used the Romanized names first reported by Britannian intelligence agencies.

Infantry, human and Reploid alike, poured out of the vehicles and surrounded her, weapons raised. Including a few Type 69 Launchers loaded with HEAT warheads. Clearly they were taking few chances here given how she slaughtered Chinese troops in Kyushu two years ago.

C2 glanced around, detached her shield from her left arm, and then raised her hands.

The Chinese officer facing her was clearly not expecting that as he nearly lowered his rifle in surprise. "What is your purpose for being here!" He demanded.

Nobody too highly ranked, just a guard captain.

She shrugged. "Zero sent me as a messenger, he wishes to speak to Consul General Gao Hai regarding an asylum request." She clarified.

The armored Chinese soldiers glanced at eachother even as the Captain looked down contemplatively before heading back over to a nearby jeep and using its radio to inform whoever was in charge about this development.

She wasn't going to try and bribe him, if anything officers kept far from the Federation's major cities and regions were either morons or people too loyal to China and the Empress to be bought. So therefore they were _dangerous_ to the Eunuchs and their supporters.

Small wonder why Yang Wen-Li was stationed on the Tibetan frontier despite being promoted to General for his overall competence not long after the Black Rebellion went south.

She heard landspinners rumble and glanced over her shoulder to see a group of Britannian police cars and a pair of Knightpolice Sutherlands roar up and take positions, none of them had lights or sirens running, indicating a Code 2 dispatch.

"_Wonderful, the Police, I need to get the hell out of here before the military figures out what's going on too."_

A quartet of Chinese Knightmare frames intercepted them at the outer perimeter of the Consulate's property, which outlined the absolute limit of the sovereign Chinese soil the complex represented.

Already she could hear both sides demanding the other stand down over loudspeakers, eventually the Britannians got the hint that their authority was meaningless within the consulate's boundaries and stood down.

She glanced skyward towards the government bureau for any indication the Lancelot was en-route.

Hopefully the thing was still fried from Kallen's EMP trick, but her luck was always shit anyways.

The Captain stepped out of his vehicle and strode over to her. "Tell Zero that midday on the twenty-third is when Hao Gai will have an opening."

C2 bowed respectfully, picking her shield back up in the same motion. "Give the Consul General my thanks, now if you please, I'll be going." She stated before switching to the Shadow Soul and backstepping into the shade projected from a Gun-Zhan, flickering and vanishing once she was engulfed in shadow.

The Chinese soldiers jumped in alarm and began wildly looking about as the Captain adjusted his uniform cap.

"Well… That's unsettling to say the least…" He muttered under his breath.

She could_ easily_ have just broken into the embassy but chose a diplomatic path instead as a sign of goodwill.

Yet at the same time Zero hadn't appeared personally, likely expecting a major response from the Britannians if he did so.

He was clearly much smarter than the opportunistic warmongering terrorist that Britannia had him painted as.

He glanced over at a nearby soldier. "Contact General Xingke and tell him to up that Reploid on the threat assessment, if she's capable of just teleporting short distances without a transerver array then who knows what _else_ she can do." He whispered.

The soldier nodded. "Understood sir."

* * *

**Government Bureau, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Suzaku frowned as the police commissioner finished their report. "I see, let me know if anything else occurs." He instructed.

Hanging up, he glanced out his window, glaring in the general direction of the consulate. "What's your game Lelouch, approaching the Chinese like this…" He murmured.

So long as he caught Zero, it would be irrelevant.

The handset rang again.

Sighing, Suzaku picked it up. "This is the Knight of Seven." He answered.

["Kururugi…"] Came the hoarse but enraged voice of Cornelia from the other end.

Suzaku blinked in surprise. "Your highness? Wha-"

["Euphie's _gone_."]

Suzaku felt his heart skip a beat. "Gone? Did she…"

["No Kururugi, she's _literally gone_, someone removed her from the hospital. The guards and staff don't remember a thing and all the footage was erased. I'm having my men try and find answers but it's slow going. We're still not sure whether or not Zer-"] Suzaku's hearing became unfocused, his hands weak.

Suzaku let the handset fall, he vaguely heard Cornelia inquire as to what the noise of the phone hitting the floor was. _"Euphie…"_

Rage flooded through his body, and he felt something snap, a haze coming over him.

The next thing he knew he'd been bodily tackled by Gino while Rivalz, Schnee, Oldrin, and Ledo held down his arms and legs.

"Suzaku! Calm down damnit! We're trying to help!" Rivalz shouted kept shouting at him.

He stopped, glancing around as he began breathing heavily.

Anya glanced over at him, having sat down on his back. "Oh good. He's regained some sense of awareness." She looked back at her handheld and logged it.

"What… What's going on…" Suzaku groaned as they got off him, allowing him to stand up.

"One of the guards heard some crashing noises from your office… And then he ran for help when he saw you trashing it." Ledo said with a wince.

"Was it really that bad…?"

"Suzaku, buddy, you tossed your _desk_ out the window. Y'know the _blast-resistant_ _triple-paned bulletproof _one? You went full on Hulk on your office." Rivalz muttered nervously.

Suzaku looked around the room. It was utterly _devastated_. "Please tell me we got the documents that were in there…" He groaned.

"Yeah, Pararoids got them all back, and we've got internal affairs getting the footage off the internet. But there's already four different meme formats circulating online regarding the desk flying out your office. Thankfully nobody knows who's responsible." Gino clarified. "What even caused this…" He asked.

He glanced over at the door and sighed in defeat. "Princess Cornelia called… She said someone took Euphie out of the hospital, nobody knows who at this time but it's safe to assume she's been abducted."

An eerie quiet fell over the room.

"Who do you think was responsible? The Black Knights?" Oldrin asked.

"No… It's not Zero's style. Maybe someone operating without his authority, but that's unlikely… Still, at this stage we can't discount such a thing given how driven he was to take down Cornelia." Suzaku half-lied.

As much as he _wanted_ it to be Lelouch, to give him another reason to pound his face in, this wasn't him. It was too high risk and too low reward for Lelouch's tastes even if he did have the motive to do so.

The issue, he had no idea who would stoop so low, the Australians had no motive, nor did the Chinese or Soviets, and likewise the EU didn't have the capacity to do this.

Moreover, the means likely involved Geass, something that, as far as he was aware, none of the other governments even _knew_ about. Which implied an unaffiliated actor with close ties to the Britannian government.

While it was possible it was Mavericks, this didn't fit their style, if anything they'd have taken hostages or just blown up the entire hospital.

So, who then?

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Geass Order Central Chinese Enclave, Taklamakan Desert, Chinese Federation.**

V.V. chuckled as he watched the comatose Euphie be rolled into an operating room under heavy guard.

"So trivial, wasn't it?" He murmured to himself. "Like taking candy from a baby, or so that old phrase goes."

His operatives had found it absurdly easy to get past the limited security, had C.C. placed her Geass resistant soldiers from the 501st on guard, an odd initiative of hers that he found quite concerning given her open dislike of him, it would've been nearly impossible to escape.

But she hadn't, clearly Euphemia wasn't as much value to them as he thought. Likewise, Charles hadn't kept the thought elevator under the Eastern Palace under as tight a scrutiny as he thought he had, allowing V.V. and his forces to use it readily to move Euphemia between the two elevators. A trivial matter even for a novice Code Bearer.

No matter. It was clear as day that even if she did wake up, she would hardly be the same, nor would she be able to re-integrate into society after what she'd done in the SAZ.

"Better to be turned into a tool and die namelessly than live a life where one is hated openly by everyone around them, it's not like Ragnarok won't remove such boundaries anyways." V.V. supposed as he watched his latest acquisition be prepared for her own augmentation.

Her attachment to Kururugi interested him anyways, the boy was too strong for a mere human, was his mother herself a former contractor of his? Or perhaps of a different Code Bearer? Most didn't live long enough to have children of their own so it was still theoretical whether the changes made to prepare them to accept a Code were transferred to the child via genetics.

It seemed likely that were the case. Certainly he himself shouldn't be able to handle an assault rifle so well, especially firing fully automatic, due to his own form being that of a child.

Yet nary a bullet, beyond a few outliers such as the ones that crippled Nunnally, missed Marianne's body. _Exactly_ as he intended.

"Sir, what augments do you plan for her to take? We've already implanted the Geass Canceller into Orange and the Luminous Arms into Leaf." One of the researchers inquired.

"Ah, I think I have a special one for her… Tell me, what did we manage to get out of that cursed fool from that old age before we starved the abomination by throwing Mechaniloids at him until he exerted all of his energy destroying them and perished?"

"Ah yes, we found fundamental similarities in concept to the radiant wave surger utilized by the Black Knights, although reversed in function as it drains rather than injects energy."

"I see… Then perhaps… Maybe we could adapt something based on that?" He suggested. "Or… Yes, I see, the Druid augment. Much less risky, particularly if she somehow turns on us." He realized after a moment.

"Understood, shall we leave the arm slots open for further augmentation at a later date my lord?"

"Yes, do so. If the maser vibration blade tests with Orange go well, we can expect to integrate something similar into her once the augments are done."

"I see. As you wish Director V.V.." The researcher replied before heading off.

The men and women working under V.V. had long since stopped questioning the morality of what they were doing, they weren't irreplaceable, and V.V. had no qualms about using them as fodder for experiments or as 'chew toys' for his latest batch of assassins either if they tested his authority.

If his own _niece_ was fair game for his torments, then nobody was off-limits.

Just the way he liked it, people kept in line by respect and fear of their superiors.

"_Now Charles, what will be your response?"_

His thoughts were interrupted by someone speaking up. "Director... What codename should we give her?" A staffer asked the Code Bearer.

V.V. looked at the running theme and grinned psychotically as it clicked.

"**_Blood_**."

* * *

**June 21, 2019 ATB.**

**Western Imperial Palace, New Pendragon, Britannian Homeland.**

"_**WHAT!?**_" Charles zi Britannia's voice boomed deafeningly as C.C. flinched at his tone.

"I said that V.V. has kidnapped Euphemia… Bartley relayed the information via the usual channels." She replied hastily, it had been a long time since she'd seen Charles so genuinely _furious_, and even as an immortal, she was still absolutely _terrified_. Such was the sheer presence of the Emperor of Britannia.

The man's body had been long enhanced by his Geass's alterations, on top of his already formidable natural physique. And it would be little issue for him to snap her neck in a fit of rage.

Lelouch and Schneizel got his mind, Odysseus and Cornelia his physical strength, even if the latter was no slouch mentally either.

"I've let that little bastard go _far_ too long, now everything is at risk..." He murmured quietly as he paced, shifting tones at the drop of a hat as his mind began to work. "Surely they'll allow us to deal with him now…"

"Charles, we _both_ know that's not going to happen unless Ragnarok seems imminent to them." C.C. pointed out as she adjusted her helmet in her hands. "Any attempt to do so will result in the Caretaker resetting time back to before we began the little operation and you _know_ how much they hate doing that."

Charles snorted derisively. "Of course, because it's _ordained by the gods_ that it _has_ to be Lelouch setting these events into motion…" He sneered.

Everything had to be so complicated when the problem could easily be defused.

But then again, was the easy way _always _worth doing? It was impossible to tell how the cards might've fell had he killed V.V. and taken his Code away earlier on.

So much could've been avoided, and yet… How much actually could've? If anything Lelouch would've been driven further into darkness, without the experience at the Kururugi shrine and the invasion to temper him it's very possible he would've been little better than Schneizel or Cornelia, seeing numbers merely as a means to an end, tools to be expended for the betterment of the Britannian commoner.

Again, impossible to know without going down those unbidden paths.

Charles closed his eyes. "Make a show of searching to appease Cornelia, but discreetly set her down the path that'll take her to China. And for god's sake make sure she doesn't try and do it alone this time." He instructed.

C.C. rolled her eyes as she placed her helmet back on. **="Just who the hell do you think I am?"=**

"And for the love of god stop quoting Anime and other media from 20XX, where do you even find those things?"

**="I'll tell you if you believe in the you that believes in yourself."=**

"_Cease_." He ordered flatly.

**="As you wish, my master."=**

Charles's eye began twitching and he just _knew_ there was a shit eating grin behind that mask.

She couldn't taunt Lelouch and Marianne was almost better at it than her so she taunted _him_.

"_I'd ask what I did to deserve this, but I think this is the _least_ of my punishments."_ The most powerful man on Earth thought in exasperation.

"Just go to Area 11 in a few days, I want your opinion on Nunnally handling office. Dig as deep as you can to see if she suspects anything about my true nature or if she merely thinks I am giving her a rope to use as she sees fit."

There was a confused utterance from C.C., which caused Charles to chuckle. "You forget that she's Marianne's daughter, even if she has realized the SAZ is now a pipe dream, she won't simply give it up due to her pride." He chided her, leaving the immortal on the back foot.

"**Very well then."=**

* * *

**June 22, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMS **_**Kestrel**_**, CV-30, Indian Ocean.**

Bartlett watched from the island as another F-11 caught the wire and came to a halt, releasing its hold on the cable as it went limp before taxiing over to a waiting spot to clear the 'runway' for the next aircraft, in this case an F-12 Wasp.

"What were the casualties like?" He asked as the ship's captain stepped over to him.

"Total aircraft losses were sixty-five fighters, twenty-one strategic bombers, and fifty strike planes and medium bombers, total claimed kills on enemy aircraft range up to ninety planes, though only thirty have been confirmed." Anderson replied. Being a former naval fighter jock himself, as were all Britannian carrier captains, it was disheartening for him to have heard of such a lopsided result in the enemy's favor. "We're not sure how many managed to eject."

"How the hell did they inflict such disproportionate losses on us?"

"They had the defensive advantage on top of having some good people flying for them combined with high volume missile racks, those Galm and Scarface mercs _shredded_ the formations heading towards them. Like lambs to the slaughter." Captain Anderson sighed as he lit a cigar. "Couple new groups also reared their hides here, downing eight fighters in three minutes before moving on to the bombers, those four were flying _Skyfangs_ of all things bearing some red Scorpion emblem, god knows where they got those birds from. Had some bastards bearing a blue star emblem backing them up. Honestly, your pilots got lucky those ribbons were flying older planes and were hatchlings themselves from all accounts, the enemy's battle hardened mercs would've devastated Wardog."

They still downed two of my pilots and hit three more…" Bartlett groused. "And we only managed to knock down one of them and force another to wave off."

Blaze had taken several hits to his fuselage, Edge had ended up with a sizable hole in her right wing, both managed to land safely. Chopper nearly had to eject on final approach, but miraculously he managed to coax his bird in.

Currently it was being stripped for parts like Edge's, due to the damage incurred by the engines and rear control surfaces.

Nearly _half _of Wardog's fighting strength depleted, rendering them combat incapable outside of defensive operations until they got new pilots and aircraft.

He felt bitter; especially given he'd lost people to the enemy. If Jive and Cavalier were still alive, they were POWs now.

He just hoped they were being treated fairly.

* * *

**June 22, 2019 ATB.**

**Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

"I see, so that's the status report. And I agree with Todoh's initiative, make sure the POWs are cared for and be sure to allow independent observers access to them to report back to the Britannians about their status. Tell anyone with any doubts of the veracity of these orders that I'm _personally_ assuring their safety, and that if I find out about any 'funny business' I'm sending C2 back to deal with anyone responsible with my full permission to _kill _if she sees fit. She rather _detests_ people who commit atrocities to say the least." Lelouch told Diethard.

["Transparency now to give us a favorable image later, I understand."] Diethard replied, leaving the threat of C2 acting as a commissar going unsaid. ["Have our forces arrived yet?"]

"Last report had them waylaid by an unknown submarine, possibly Soviet given their sudden burst of activity in the South China Sea." Lelouch said as he glanced out the cab's window. "Should be another day or so to get past the Britannian Naval forces patrolling the approaches.

["Very well then, we'll contact you or C2 if the situation changes."] Diethard stated before hanging up.

"So… How bad is it?"

"Surprisingly little damage was done, I guess Rakshata outdid herself this time." He conceded with a shrug.

C2 hummed softly. "Still, I give it about a week before the Brits start prototyping a countermeasure."

"Hmph, a sucker's bet." He intoned as he opened his bag and pulled out the mask.

"Ready?" C2 asked as she glanced out the taxi window, the tinted glass doing wonders to prevent them from being identified in traffic.

Lelouch smirked. "Of course. After this, all conditions will be fulfilled, and we can move on to the next phase of the plan."

C2 grinned. "Can't wait for _that_." She chuckled.

Lelouch side-eyed her from behind his mask, was she putting up another front, or was this part of her genuine instability?

Either way he wasn't nearly qualified enough for figuring out the psychological issues of one of the two most advanced AIs known to mankind.

Besides, he had admittedly more pressing concerns to worry about right now.

Already he could see the Imperial Blue plated chassis of Britannian Gloucesters, Vincent Ward series machines, Brightons, M60A1 MBTs, M41 light tanks, and M113 APCs scattered about, the military clearly just waiting for an excuse to surround the Chinese consulate.

Knightpolice Sutherlands, squad cars, SUVs, pickups, Riot Vans, mobile command trucks, armored cars and APCs were likewise waiting in the wings, with officers milling about, likely wondering why they were present if the military was as well.

Maverick Hunter vehicles, troopers, and mechaniloids, including a few landed Bee Bladers, were also present in numbers.

He swore he spotted a few glints of red and gold, indicating the Glinda Knights were also present.

Not a big surprise there, Marrybell would rather die than miss an opportunity to catch him like this.

And considering it was Zero they were dealing with; overkill was more or less an attempt to _assure_ he was captured or killed.

="Are those two in position?"= He asked the Reploid.

C2 gestured towards the pair of prototype Vincents standing by behind a group of Gloucesters, one silver, Clara's unit, and the other gold. Rolo.

="Good, we may need them to intervene if the worst comes to worst."=

"So, how're we playing this?" C2 inquired as she looked up and located the _Avalon_ and _Grandberry_ hovering over the city nearby, the former likely being used to stage the Rounds.

="Just follow my lead and stay calm."= He instructed.

"Right…" C2 muttered as the cab came to a stop.

="Knock the driver out."=

C2 shrugged, switched to the Elec Soul, and gave the driver a gentle jolt after checking his biometrics to ensure he didn't have a heart condition.

The man went limp, C2 grabbing ahold of the wheel as the vehicle skewed to the side, wavering the wheel to bleed off speed and allow it to slowly come to a rolling stop against the curb just outside the outer edge of the Chinese perimeter now that there was no pressure on the pedal.

Immediately dozens of guns were aimed at the taxi.

* * *

**June 22, 2019 ATB.**

**HIMAS**_** Grandberry**_**, Tokyo Settlement Airspace.**

Reports echoed through the bridge of the _Grandberry_.

["Sniper teams Four and Five have eyes on target."]

["Sir Gladwell's team is in position."]

["The 291st Mechanized Infantry is moving to barricade their path of retreat, 17th Elite from the Maverick Hunters are assisting."]

["Sir Kimmel reports he and Dame Briggs are standing by with the Vincent Elite prototypes."]

Marrybell narrowed her eyes as the reports continued onwards. _"Zero…"_

["Dame Zevon's team is standing by to cut Zero's path of advance."]

One of the main screens flashed to a view of the taxi as the doors opened.

["Confirmed! Zero has been identified!"]

["Don't do anything rash!"] Suzaku's voice ordered. ["If a stray round hits the Chinese guards or the Consulate that's an act of war!"]

C2 stepped out of the taxi's opposite side, raising her shield as she did so and glancing around.

["Confirm, he brought the Banshee with him."]

Marrybell heard someone swear openly over the comms.

["Can the chatter."] Someone ordered as Zero and C2 began to walk towards the consulate.

Gritting her teeth. Marrybell gave the order, as much as she hated to.

"Let them pass."

* * *

**June 22, 2019 ATB.**

**Chinese Consulate Perimeter, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Lelouch smirked behind his mask as the Zetland, Bradford, Lancelot Grail and the Ward Glindas behind them moved aside to let them pass.

Slowly, he and C2 strode towards the consulate, once past the perimeter of Chinese soldiers, any moves against them would be an act of war against the Federation, which would undoubtedly ruin whatever plans the Imperial High command had that relied on them.

Earning the ire of not only Schneizel, but also Liath and the entire military high command was more than a career ender.

It was a literal death sentence.

He glanced over at the Sheffield Eye as it strode out of cover along with a pair of Brighton Glindas, having never seen that type before and assuming it was an electronic warfare support machine due to its lighter design and lack of armament.

Perhaps the Black Knights would have to acquire a similar type of machine to make the most of their comparatively limited capabilities?

C2's reaction to it confirmed his theory, as she gave it a side-eyed glare after flinching rather violently in response to the Sheffield eye's interference with her radios.

="Easy."= He warned. ="Don't let the Glinda Knights get to you, they _want_ an excuse to start shooting."=

She clicked her metal tongue but said nothing, simply staying in lockstep with Lelouch as they strode towards the Consulate, scanning about for threats from Britannian snipers even as UV-1 Iroquois and AV-1 Cobra VTOLs shadowed them from above.

The rest of the walk was a rather uneventful if heartpounding affair nonetheless since a single twitchy trigger finger or disobedient soldier could've ruined _everything_.

* * *

X sighed as he leaned on a Maverick Hunter patrol car. "Why'd we even come out here except to throw bodies at an issue which wasn't going to happen?" He grumbled as he crossed his arms.

He'd offered no inclination about his dismay regarding C2's presence given that any mishap would've resulted in her inevitable demise due to sheer overwhelming numbers and firepower, so he was _quite_ thankful nothing had gone wrong.

"Beats me, but a lot of our independence got stripped away after the shit that happened during the Uprising, so we're at the beck and call of the Britannian Military as long as we're on their soil." A trooper muttered.

X nodded as he watched the Chinese cordon form up before slowly withdrawing back to the Consulate's walls. "Wonder what the news'll make of this?"

"Probably the same bullcrap they always do sir. It's just Zero pulling a publicity stunt to remind us he's out there. At this rate he might burn out the Britannian budget and force them to capitulate without firing another shot." The trooper joked. "Maybe next time they'll roll out landships and bombers."

Rubbing his chin, X wasn't exactly as sure. Everything Zero did had a purpose, risking himself in broad daylight was idiotic if it was just a stunt.

"_What's his game…"_

* * *

**June 22, 2019 ATB.**

**Chinese Consulate, Tokyo Settlement, Area 11.**

Once inside, Zero and C2 were ushered before Gao Hai, the former two noting that General Xingke wasn't present, providing them with a golden opportunity.

"So, Zero, a little birdie tells me that you seek asylum from Britannia here. What are you willing to put on the table in exchange? I can't simply allow something like this in good faith without compensation after all." The High Eunuch explained with a wry grin on his face.

"_Slime makes my plating crawl, and to think this guy is one of the _cleaner_ Eunuchs given all he cares about is money and riches."_ C2 thought.

="You see Consul General… I don't have to offer you anything."=

"_Here it comes."_ C2 thought, smirking behind her battle mask, none of Gao Hai's security men were flanking him directly, meaning none of them had a clear line of sight to the front of Zero's mask.

Idiots all of them.

The eyeport slid open, Lelouch's contact lens having been removed long before they arrived. ="Because you'll do everything in your power to appease Zero."= He ordered.

He watched Gao Hai relax and nod before holding up a hand to get the men around them to stand down after they began to reach for their weapons.

Not like that would've mattered much if C2 had planned on killing them, even AP rounds from their pistols and SMGs would do little to her armor even without her shields on.

"Yes." He said on reflex before gesturing at the men around them. "Get these two a pair of staterooms to use as they see fit, make sure they're not the bugged ones either."

The men looked at eachother, money mattered more to them than loyalty to the Tianzi or China, so they did as ordered.

Lelouch grinned madly behind his mask as the eyeport shut as quickly as it opened. _"Now, hopefully I can negotiate with Xingke about a certain vessel I need."_ He thought as he relaxed. _"And then all preconditions on our end will be met. At which point the ball will lie firmly in Nunnally's court."_

* * *

**AN: So some more sidestory stuff get used here, and basically set up for the coming events, albiet modified versions of canon occurrences since C.C.'s trying to set Lelouch down a certain path.**

**Though after that it's up in the air until Tokyo, what with the impending assault against the Soviets courtesy of Britannia.**

**And Schneizel's hedged his bets _heavily_ to reduce the risk of Zero derailing his plans.**

**Anywho, the F-58 and the Fw 422 are based heavily on the F-4 Phantom, the C.808 is based on the Panavia Tornado ADV, **


End file.
